Pharmacy fined for double-filling prescription

Art Nadler

Friday, Aug. 6, 1999 | 10:58 a.m.

The state Board of Pharmacy fined a national pharmacy chain and a pharmacist Thursday for double-filling an elderly woman's prescription.

Pharmacist Kwame Boateng, 38, was ordered to pay $1,000 for the Nov. 28, 1998, incident in which he gave Antoinette Mastrino, 76, two prescriptions of different dosages for the estrogen-replacement drug Premarin. She took both doses for a month before the error was detected.

The Rite Aid Pharmacy store where Boateng worked, 4230 S. Rainbow Blvd., was also fined $1,000.

Boateng said he couldn't read the doctor's handwriting and checked both doses in the pharmacy drug information handbook before filling the two prescriptions. He told the board the book indicated the two doses together were not dangerous.

State law requires that a pharmacist ask a person if counseling is needed before a prescription is released. Rite Aid's counseling form, which had two boxes -- one indicating counseling and another saying no counseling -- were not checked.

The pharmacist said he counseled Mastrino's husband, who picked up her medications. Board members felt that couldn't be substantiated.

Michael Dyer, Rite Aid's attorney, said the company would revamp its patient-counseling policy.

A second Rite Aid Pharmacy, located at 525 E. Windmill Road, was fined $2,500 in addition to investigative and hearing costs to be determined at a later date. The store manager was found negligent in allowing unauthorized people to enter the pharmacy and dispense prescription drugs to customers.

The pharmacy was found guilty of nine illegal entries in one day.