
DATE: Thursday, July 31, 1997               TAG: 9707310633

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  105 lines

PHARMACY BOARD CHASTISES ECKERD THE STATE AGENCY CITES PRESCRIPTION ERRORS AND INCOMPLETE RECORDS.

State regulators are considering whether to deny Eckerd Corp. the right to operate more than 100 drugstores in Virginia, saying the company may have violated several laws and jeopardized customers' safety.

In a six-page letter to Eckerd, the head of Virginia's Pharmacy Board harshly criticized the drugstore chain for making prescription mistakes, using incomplete records and forcing customers to endure long waits.

An investigation of Eckerd's stores, until recently owned by Revco, ``revealed a setting of general confusion and unprofessional practice of pharmacy,'' agency director Elizabeth Scott Russell wrote in the letter to Eckerd's president, Frank Newman.

A copy of the letter, dated Wednesday, was obtained by The Virginian-Pilot.

Next week, members of a pharmacy board committee will meet with Eckerd officials to discuss the allegations. The panel can recommend that Eckerd be refused permits to operate the pharmacies. It also can suggest fines or probation.

Eckerd isn't the only company that faces the state's scrutiny. Revco D.S. Inc. and its new owner, CVS Corp., also face fines. The two companies, which merged in May, did not provide Eckerd with complete prescription records.

And if Eckerd loses the stores, the Federal Trade Commission may be asking questions, too. That's because the FTC approved the Revco-CVS merger only after stores were spun off to Eckerd.

``We are monitoring the whole situation very closely,'' said Bonnie Jansen, an FTC spokeswoman. Jansen declined to comment on whether Eckerd's situation could affect the Revco-CVS merger.

Dan Pero, a spokesman for Clearwater, Fla.-based Eckerd, said his company is eager to talk to state regulators.

``Eckerd has put programs in place to effectively resolve these problems, and we are confident that we have done what is necessary to answer the concerns of the Virginia Pharmacy Board and ensure the safety and well-being of our customers,'' he said.

Eager to expand in the mid-Atlantic region, Eckerd agreed to buy 113 of Revco's 234 Virginia drugstores from CVS - 79 of them in Hampton Roads. The deal, announced May 30, also included an unopened Revco location.

But something went wrong.

Eckerd discovered that it could not immediately transfer the prescription data from Revco's computer network. This was a problem because Virginia law requires the companies to make two years of store prescription records available to pharmacists.

Officials with all three chains were familiar with the state statute. But in Eckerd's rush to take over, coupled with time demands on the Revco-CVS merger, they decided to provide only four months' worth of records on microfiche.

As a result, pharmacists accustomed to Revco's sophisticated computer system were forced to leaf through sheets of microfiche to locate patients' prescription information. They've since been provided with more complete records.

The confusion at Eckerd was evident to the state, which cited several examples in its letter to the drugstore chain:

A customer was given twice his prescribed dosage of an anti-depressant.

A pharmacist gave a 16-month-old child a cough expectorant with instructions to take 1/2 tablespoon every six hours instead of the prescribed 1/2 teaspoon.

Patients missed medication doses due to Eckerd's long delays.

Eckerd moved into Virginia so fast that it neglected to immediately apply for permits to operate its new pharmacies.

Most of the pharmacies had between four and 12 people behind the counter. ``This excess traffic . . . created the chaos and the inability of the pharmacist to comply with the laws and regulations, and maintain control and security of the drug stock.''

Eckerd asked pharmacists to carefully check microfiche records before entering that information onto Eckerd's computer system. But the pharmacists, who were behind schedule, didn't always do so.

Eckerd's problems have had far-reaching effects. Doctors' offices have been complaining about troubles reaching Eckerd pharmacists. Even the head of a major health insurer in Virginia called Eckerd to get reassurances. ILLUSTRATION: Graphics

LOCALLY

Eckerd bought 113 of Revco's 234 Virginia drugstores from CVS -

79 of them in Hampton Roads.

THE BUYOUT

Jan. 27: CVS Corp. announced plans to purchase Revco D.S. Inc. -

a deal that would create the nation's second-largest drugstore chain

with $11 billion in sales. The Federal Trade Commission, however,

warned CVS that it would have to address antitrust concerns,

particularly in Virginia, where both chains operated.

May 30: CVS said it had agreed to sell 113 of its 234 Revco

stores (plus one unopened site) in Virginia to Clearwater,

Fla.-based Eckerd. With the sale, CVS completed the Revco buyout the