Rite-Aid Gets
A Reprieve
On Pharmacy

Randolph’s Rite-Aid pharmacy won a reprieve from the Vermont Board of Pharmacy last week and will be allowed to stay open with a temporary pharmacy manager assigned here for the next three to four weeks.

The Pharmacy Board had threatened to suspend the Randolph store’s pharmacy license because its former manager had left her job on Nov. 2. It is illegal and unsafe to operate without a manager, the board said in a "Request for Summary Suspension."

At a Pharmacy Board hearing Friday in Montpelier, however, the prosecutor in the case said a verbal agreement had been reached with Rite-Aid, though no Rite-Aid representative was present.

Testifying was Atty. Rob Backus, who is employed as full-time prosecutor in the Office of Professional Regulation, a division of the office of Secretary of State.

Atty. Backus asked the Board to continue the suspension hearing until Dec. 5.

"It looks like they’ll be in compliance with the law on Monday (Nov. 19)," he said.

Board Chair Larry Novine then suggested that the enforcement action be withdrawn altoghether, to be re-filed later if necessary, and Backus agreed.

A Rite-Aid attorney, Bernard Lambek of Montpelier, was said to be available by phone at the hearing, but it was decided his testimony was not necessary.

Atty. Backus also told the board that Rite-Aid has hired a new pharmacist for the Randolph store who would be the manager and would be able to start in three to four weeks.

The Herald’s attempt to confirm that information, however, indicated that no such agreement has been reached.

Atty. Backus was not available for comment about the discrepancy.

Just the Latest

The loss of the pharmacy manager at Rite-Aid is only the latest, and most serious, development in a controversy swirling around the Randolph pharmacy—and, indeed, around the pharmacy profession in Vermont as a whole. The state apparently is short of pharmacists.

Individuals and representatives of service agencies have complained that the Randolph Rite-Aid has frequently been closed when it is supposed to be open, leading to inconvenience for those who need medications.

The Pharmacy Board has expressed "concern" about the situation in Randolph and elsewhere.

Atty. Backus at Friday’s hearings noted that finding a new pharmacy manager "would not solve the other issues."

The Office of Professional Regulation is part of the Office of Secretary of State, and last month, Secretary of State Deb Markowitz said she was aware of the problem of pharmacy hours and staffing.

"The obligation of the board is to regulate the pharmacist and safety issues," she said. If the pharmacy is not open, she noted, "there is a health and safety issue."

However, she stressed, pharmacies are private businesses, and the state doesn’t regulate their hours, although it does require a 30-day notice if the pharmacy wants to change its regular hours. They are also supposed to notify her office if temporary changes have to be made.

The Board is looking into whether that requirement has always been met, she indicated.