Pharmacy fined $1,000 for medication-dispensing error
The Hy-Vee Pharmacy at 410 N. Ankeny Blvd. in Ankeny, Iowa. (Photo via Google Earth)
An Ankeny pharmacy has been fined $1,000 for dispensing the wrong medication to a customer and then failing to report the incident within the required timeframe.
The Hy-Vee Pharmacy at 410 N. Ankeny Blvd. in Ankeny was charged by the Iowa Board of Pharmacy with incorrectly dispensing a prescribed medication to a patient and with failing to properly record all medication errors in its quality-control reports.
The board alleges that on July 24, 2024, a patient went to Hy-Vee to pick up her prescription for Aimovig, a drug commonly used to treat migraine headaches. A pharmacy technician pulled the patient's will-call bag with the printed receipt but retrieved the wrong medication from the refrigerator. The pharmacy technician incorrectly provided the patient with Ajovy, another drug often used to treat headaches, that was prescribed for another patient, according to the board.
The pharmacy did not discover the dispensing error for five days, when the second patient arrived to collect her prescribed allotment of Ajovy. It was then discovered that the Ajovy was missing, while the Aimovig — which had theoretically been given to the first patient — was still sitting on the shelf.
Upon realizing what had transpired, the pharmacist in charge immediately called the first patient to determine whether, as suspected, she had mistakenly been given the Ajovy. The patient reported that she had, adding that she had disposed of the Ajovy, believing it to be an old prescription she had been given in error.
Upon investigation, the board determined that the pharmacy did not report the medication error in its Continuous Quality Improvement report within the required timeframe of 24 hours.
The board and the pharmacy recently agreed to a settlement that requires the Ankeny store to pay a $1,000 civil penalty and to provide all of its pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with a board-approved continuing education course on patient safety and the prevention of medication errors.
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