Greenville Pharmacy has been sanctioned twice before.
By Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch
A Sioux City pharmacy with a history of regulatory violations has been fined for a medication error that led to a life-threatening situation for a customer.
The Iowa Board of Pharmacy alleges that on Oct. 4, 2023, Greenville Pharmacy in Sioux City incorrectly filled a prescription for a customer who then began taking the drug.
Three weeks later, the customer was treated in the emergency room of a hospital and was then admitted for what the board says was a “life-threatening condition resulting from this medication error.”
Greenville Pharmacy was charged by the board with dispensing an incorrect prescription, although the available public documents don’t indicate whether the wrong drug or wrong dosage was dispensed. The records give no indication as to whether the customer recovered.
As a result of the licensing board charge, Greenville Pharmacy agreed to have its license placed on probation for two years and agreed to pay a $2,500 civil penalty.
Pharmacy had previous violations
In 2002, the board charged Greenville Pharmacy with violating a law related to the practice of pharmacy and with the intentional or repeated violation of board rules.
As part of that case, a board investigator reviewed the records of all the controlled substances dispensed by the pharmacy between September 2001 and January 2002, and found that the business had provided customers with controlled substances before the “do not dispense before” date nine times during the four-month period.
Pharmacy tech surrenders registration
A state-registered certified pharmacy technician has agreed to surrender her registration in response to allegations that she stole hundreds of medication tablets.
According to the Iowa Board of Pharmacy, the Monroe Community Telepharmacy discovered in October 2023 that there was a discrepancy in its inventory of Adderall, a drug commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The board alleges that a subsequent investigation revealed that pharmacy technician Wendy Atcher had stolen 701 Adderall tablets of varying strengths over the previous seven months.
Without admitting guilt, Atcher agreed to surrender her state registration as a certified pharmacy technician. She will be eligible to apply for reinstatement after one year. No criminal charges were filed in the case.
The board also alleged the pharmacy had dispensed six prescriptions for controlled substances when the prescription was undated or was dated at least 15 years prior to it being filled. Pharmacists at the business allegedly acknowledged that they believed several customers who regularly had their prescriptions filled prematurely were abusers of controlled substances.
The case was resolved with a consent order requiring Greenville Pharmacy to pay a $1,500 fine, with its license placed on probation for three years.
In 2005, the board charged the pharmacy with a lack of professional competency due to a medication-dispensing error, failure to perform the required inventory of controlled substances, and failure to comply with the terms of the 2002 consent order.
The board alleged that on some unspecified date, the pharmacy had incorrectly dispensed Toprol-XL, a beta-blocker used to treat high blood pressure, rather than Topamax, a drug used to treat epilepsy that had been prescribed for a 5-year-old child.
A routine inspection then revealed that no inventory of controlled substances had been completed over the previous three years. The board fined Greenville Pharmacy $500 and its license was placed on probation for three years.
State records indicate that two pharmacists, Robert E. Rehal, 91, and Robert P. Rehal, 57, are officers of Greenville Pharmacy.
In 2002, Robert E. Rehal’s license was placed on probation for three years in connection with the allegations of medications being dispensed prematurely.
In 2005, Robert P. Rehal’s license was placed on probation for three years in connection with the Toprol-XL dispensing error.
In 2017, Robert P. Rehal, as the operator of Leeds Pharmacy in Sioux City, was charged with violating the duties of a pharmacist in charge. The board alleged Rehal’s quality-improvement reports that pertained to dispensing errors did not “adequately address the root causes of dispensing errors.” Rehal was issued a warning, fined $500, and was required to complete 18 hours of educational training on medication errors and patient safety.
Deputy Editor Clark Kauffman has worked during the past 30 years as both an investigative reporter and editorial writer at two of Iowa’s largest newspapers, the Des Moines Register and the Quad-City Times. He has won numerous state and national awards for reporting and editorial writing.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch is a hard-hitting, independent news organization dedicated to connecting Iowans to their state government and its impact on their lives. The Capital Dispatch combines state government coverage with relentless investigative journalism, deep dives into the consequences of policy, political insight, and principled commentary. The Capital Dispatch is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. We retain full editorial independence.
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