DATE: Friday, August 8, 1997                TAG: 9708080609

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   96 lines

ECKERD PUNISHMENT CRITICIZED SUGGESTED PENALTY WOULD BARELY AFFECT COMPANY, SOME SAY.

Pharmacists, consumer advocates and a state lawmaker criticized a committee's recommended punishment for drugstore chain Eckerd, saying it seems too weak to affect a multibillion-dollar corporation.

Wednesday night, a state pharmacy panel said Eckerd Corp. should be allowed to continue operating its 113 Virginia pharmacies, despite recent violations of state law. Rather, it suggested the company be placed on probation and fined $547,000, which could be whittled down to $100,000.

``That doesn't even seem to be a good slap on the hand,'' said state Sen. Stanley Walker, a Norfolk Democrat who heads the Joint Commission on Health Care.

He said he would ask his staff to begin gathering information from the state Board of Pharmacy. He said the commission would meet to discuss the issue as early as next month.

Eckerd's bungled debut into Virginia has been a headache for state officials, who scratched their heads Wednesday trying to figure out how to fine the company.

``I can safely say we haven't had a situation exactly like this in the past,'' said Elizabeth Scott Russell, executive director of the pharmacy board. She declined to explain how the committee calculated the penalties.

Russell said the full pharmacy board probably would review its committee's decision on Aug. 19. It can reverse the recommendations, tack on more fines or decide to deny Eckerd permits to operate the stores.

State regulators have been receiving complaints about Eckerd since mid-June, when the Clearwater, Fla.-based retailer took over 113 of Revco's 234 stores in Virginia. Included were 79 drugstore in Hampton Roads.

Shortly after the takeover, customers complained of prescription mistakes, incomplete records and long delays. During their investigation, state inspectors said they found confusion in many Eckerd stores.

Charlotte Catarsi, an Eckerd pharmacist from the Petersburg area, told pharmacy committee members that she was overwhelmed. She couldn't find patients' records. She ran out of some drug supplies, and when she tried to reach insurers or doctors, the phone lines were tied up.

Her backlog of prescription orders grew so large that she and her partner, also a pharmacist, had to overlap their shifts.

``It was a chaotic mess,'' she said.

Catarsi said her partner quit last week. Several others, frustrated with the retailer's problems, walked off their jobs without notice, an Eckerd official said.

Eckerd isn't the only company facing state scrutiny. Revco D.S. Inc. and its new owner, CVS Corp., also could be fined for failing to provide Eckerd with adequate prescription records.

All three chains knew about a state law requiring the transfer of two years of prescription records. But the companies decided to provide four months of information, instead.

Wednesday, Eckerd Vice Chairman Robert Hannan stood before pharmacy committee members to plead for permits to operate the Virginia stores. He also apologized, saying officials didn't anticipate the confusion.

Hannan said there were time constraints on the buyout. At the time, CVS was in a rush to finish its purchase of Revco. And Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS needed to spin off Virginia Revcos to address federal antitrust concerns and complete the merger.

Eckerd executives also may have felt competitive pressures. Rivals might have been sniffing at the same stores.

``The stores were going to be sold - and sold within a time period,'' Hannan said.

Consumer advocates and pharmacists questioned all three retailers' priorities, saying executives forgot to look out for customers' needs.

``This is ridiculous,'' said Larry Sasich of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group in Washington. ``It seems like there was a total disregard by these companies.''

Most industry observers agreed that Eckerd wouldn't be hurt by a $100,000 or $547,000 fine. Eckerd, a division of J.C. Penney Co., earned $93.5 million on $5 billion in sales last year.

Jay Levine, a pharmacist at Norfolk's Atrium Pharmacy, said any fines should be ``high enough to hurt.''

Sasich, also a pharmacist, suggested that regulators target the people who made the decisions, as opposed to the ``company.'' He said big company fines might end up hurting customers' or stockholders' wallets.

Eckerd officials, for their part, said they never lost sight of their customers. And, with more records and beefed-up staff, they said the confusion in the stores had eased.

Not everyone is convinced.

Rival pharmacists say they're still picking up business from customers upset at Eckerd. Customers are still complaining about prescription mistakes and other problems.

Lynda Rolin, a Norfolk resident, said Eckerd recently made the same mistake - using a different medication brand - on two of her last two refills. It wasn't a serious mistake. It wasn't life-threatening.

But what happened to her husband, Robert, was dangerous, industry observers said.

Robert, who had rheumatic fever, must take penicillin two hours before any surgeries or dental work - to prevent a potentially life-threatening infection of the damaged heart valves. That's what the doctor prescribed and that's what Robert knew to do.

The instructions read differently: Take the antibiotic two hours after the procedure.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu