CVS Health, one of the nation’s largest operators of retail chain pharmacies, will pay Ohio $1.5 million in penalties for problems largely related to understaffing and make changes that may soon be mandatory for all the state’s retail pharmacies, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy said Thursday.
The penalties, the largest ever imposed by the state board, are part of the settlement of 27 safety cases the board was investigating at 22 CVS pharmacies.
The 27 cases alleged numerous safety concerns and potential legal violations found during a series of inspections of those stores between 2020 and 2023, and found that understaffing contributed significantly to many of the issues. Inspectors identified insufficient staff for the volume of prescriptions, dispensing errors, prescription delays, dirty equipment, trash throughout the pharmacies, expired medications, poor drug security and failure to report losses of controlled substances, among other issues.
“By entering into this settlement agreement, the Board seeks immediate and systemic changes to protect patients and address critical understaffing,” said Steven Schierholt, executive director of the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy. “We believe that this agreement is an acknowledgement by CVS that considerable changes are warranted to ensure the safe practice of pharmacy at their retail stores.”
The agreement included the rare step of placing the eight stores with the biggest staffing issues under “advanced monitoring” by the board, to be funded by CVS, for the next three years. CVS also agreed to voluntarily comply with several not-yet-finalized state rules focused on patient safety. Those include implementing mandatory rest breaks, dispensing prescriptions within three days or less, and instituting a process for staff to notify management of understaffing.
The proposed state rules CVS agreed to follow may soon apply to all pharmacies in the state, as the board expects them to be finalized within the next few…
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