Pharmacy Diverting meds? (long)

Nurses General Nursing

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I don't even know where to start this one so I am sure it will be a little long....

The kids dad was in a BAD car wreck beginning of December and nearly died. He had a dissected aorta and a stent graft was eventually placed. Extensive injuries from the wreck as well as lack of perfusion and he is now home (staying with his mom) going to outpatient PT and OT. He's healing well but has quite a bit of pain and is on some heavy duty meds. He was on dilaudid and now on methadone in a very low dose. He also has some brain injury d/t lack of blood flow and a little slow lately. We are hoping most will come back in time.

The town he is staying in is known as a drug haven for herion and pills and also has a large population of the elderly. Well a few times he has gone to the local (only) grocery store in town to get meds filled and been shorted by quite a few pills. Then they started partially filling them saying come back in a few days and we will have the rest. He was unaware of the 72 hour rule on filling narcs so when he went back he could not get the remainder of the scripts and they acted like it was his fault. Now today when he went to get his methadone filled they gave him 6 out of 48 and put it and RANG it up like it was the dilaudid and said come back in 4 days- again if he did he would be out 42 pills of methadone!!

Thankfully his sister caught the label error and did not buy their story and marched him right back in there and got the prescription back to fill elsewhere after a big scene.

When they told me about this the other day I said be careful and count and verify, but never dreamed today they would short him 42 pills! The only thing I can think of is that somebody there is totally diverting in a major way.

What do you all think about this and what should I do- report this to the state? Remember this has happened at least 3-4 times, maybe more just to this one person.

Specializes in Peds.
Yes, report it to the state board of pharmacy. They will investigate if there is a concern

I think I would take lauralassie's advice and call the state pharmacy board. I'd also be careful about asking around in that area. If there is a 'drug ring' of sorts, you could find yourself in a pickle.

After the first incident I would have found another pharmacy in another town to fill the scripts. The only problem I see with reporting it is that you did not witness any of the alleged medication thefts. Why can't the family themselves report the situation to the state authorities?

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