Palm Beach woman sues Walgreens over insulting comments on prescription

South Florida Sun-Sentinel ^ | March 8 2006 | Missy Stoddard

[indcons]

For years, Janey Karp has battled depression and anxiety with the help of prescription drugs. Though millions of Americans do the same, Karp admits she is intensely private and can't help but feel stigmatized for needing medication to feel normal.

So when the 53-year-old Palm Beach resident read the Walgreens printout attached to her prescription last week for the sleep aid Ambien, she couldn't believe her eyes. Typed in a field reserved for patient information and dated March 17, 2005, was "CrAzY!!" In another field, dated Sept. 30, 2004, it read: "She's really a psycho!!! Do not say her name too loud, never mention her meds by names & try to talk to her when ... " The information continued onto another page but was not attached.

"I was devastated, humiliated and embarrassed," Karp said. "I honestly couldn't speak. I was trembling."

Karp filed suit Tuesday against Illinois-based Walgreen Co., accusing the nationwide retail chain of defamation, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Walgreens is investigating, according to company spokeswoman Carol Hively, who said that computers are accessible to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

[Aliska]

Dashed to the store between lapses in the downpour. Now I'm back and was going through a card of my granddaughter's photos she took in Cabos. You can buy the stuff off the shelf down there. I will zoom the pics up tomorrow and see if I can recognize more of them, but my daughter, her friend and I were looking at the slideshow version and we recognized Zoloft and another one the friend takes for her seizures, can't remember what it was.

It' hard to imagine picking that stuff off the shelf. Maybe they are catering to an American clientele who know what they are supposed to be on and the proper dosages and sell them cheap. It looked pretty dangerous to me.

There are 3 of these photos, I'll just post the one, sorry for the bandwidth, tried to size for web so people can still see some of what's there. Hope my granddaughter doesn't mind my posting her photo, don't think she will care. It's on my flash card I loaned her so she would have two :-).

[austinaero]

Exactly. If she is so 'private', how come we all know about her situation?

I think Walgreens has a problem on it's hands with this one. She'll get plenty of lawyering and play right into the role of victim. I get her point about wanting her medication info private. Once while I was waiting at a Pharmacy, I overheard the pharmacist talking to a guy about how his medication may cause 'sexual side effects.' I couldn't help but feel bad for him. Nobody has a right to know that.

[John Robertson]

"..but, at the same time, her comments and actions in this situation seems to confirm the comments.."

Here's hoping you were trying to be ironic. Otherwise, that's a really stupid thing to say...on a whole lot of levels.

[John Robertson]

"These were actually comments generated by the pharmacy in some capcity so they didn't break any hippa rules. She and the pharmacy workers are the only ones who saw it."

Must disagree. The type of unprofessional behavior breaks the rules. Only she and the workers saw it? What if your plumber wrote on his pink copy of his invoice, this bitch is so damned demanding and nitpicking I wanted to kill her. I'm contacting the Central Blacklist, and putting her on it. No plumber should ever come to this hellhole again. And who does she think she is, all "hot-dressed" for me every time I come here. Lady, it's 8 AM, I'm not awake yet, I got a family and my grandmother's younger than you...Just let me do my damned job and get out of here."

And it's brought to your door by the neighbor you never really liked, because she's so damned nosy--always seems to be looking for gossip to spread around. She hands it to you, saying, Found this by the curb. Guess your special plumber dropped it.

What if the plumber is the crazy one--hey, none of what he said is true, he just wrote it because no one would ever see it but him. But now somenone else has knowledge of what he wrote, and she is not to be trusted....

It's not a perfect example...in large part because there is no such thing. But, it does have some similarities. People who have mental conditions that need treated shouldn't be embarrassed by them these days...but maybe many of them are because so many of us out here in the "normal" world immediately start making fun of them or their problems or behavior. You know: It's not paranoia if everbody IS talking about you!

Walgreens will settle big or lose big, but it's going to be big.

[pandoraou812]

I know all about Walgreens too. They rip me off all the time. I have a copay but for some reason it seems I have to pay full pricefor many of my drugs. I have had fight after fight with them and even had my insurance company call them. I bet they have notes on me too. I have been told my prescription would be ready in an hour, gone to get it and been told they have to order it. I would think they would call and save me the trip but they don't seem to have their act together. And they have hire rude teenagers/young employees. I would go elsewhere but my insurance co would rather we use them.

[John Robertson]

"They disclosed their opinion that she is a crazy psycho. And they only disclosed it to her! I don't think that's really against the law."

They are not qualified to "disclose" opinions that she's crazy. And they did it to more people than her (do you really believe the "pharmacy workers"--counter people--didn't whisper it to the other workers in the store? As for it being against the law...who knows, we'd have to review this state's laws. But it probably is. I mean, does it seem fair that anyone connected to any part of a medical enterprise should be able to in effect make your condition or treatment public without penalty?

And now all the pharmacists may leave the room: Pharmacists take pills out of big bottles and put them into little bottles. They work software (doesn't everybody do that these days?) so your new scrip doesn't conflict with your old one and rupture your eyeball. They wear white coats. They get to stand about 18-22 inches above you, on that riser behind the counter, so they can look down on you. They go to pharmacy school but so could you or I. They get paid very well. They don't COMPOUND medicines, they don't create anything. The job has its stress, and sometimes long hours, but it's usually guaranteed high-paid, well-benefitted work that most people respect.

So pharmacists should show more respect for their profession and never let this unprofessional behavior happen again. Not looking the other way, not firing someone when they should be fired...when somebody does something disrespectful or insulting to a patient who has come to you for part of his treatment... you've broken a trust none of us should ever have think about as being anything other than inviolable.

[Blue Jays]

Hi All-

Walgreens should have a very strict policy with regard to warehousing customer data. There shouldn't even be a field with a "public vs. private" choice on a dropdown box...because you know some pharmacist will eventually select the wrong box.

Walgreens also has no business passing judgement on what a doctor has prescribed for his/her patient. I don't think she deserves zillions of dollars, but the company should feel a bit of a sting from the punishment.

~ Blue Jays ~

[RHINO369]

The idea that her friend picked it up has nothing to do with it. Its not like walgreens went to her friend and told her, she sent her friend to pick it up on her behalf. Is it a violation if I send my mom (yea i send my mom to get my prescriptions and I'm 20 years old lay off) and the pharmacist tells my mom that I can't take it with alcohol?

I still think the crazy comments weren't in reguards to her taking antidepressant meds, it was because she was a terrible jerk to the pharmacists. I did customer service at a grocery store and people are jerks. Too bad for them I'm a nice guy when your nice to me, but I'm a vindictive ahole when you start attacking me for no reason.

[Richard Kimball]

It should have been couched in more diplomatic terms. I made the same mistake on a run report when I worked for the fire department. The only reason I didn't get in trouble was because it probably saved the city from a lawsuit.

The guy lived at one of the city projects, and his gas stove feeder line broke. The maintenance man came out, told him not to light the stove, and went to get another gas line. He tried to bend the ruptured pipe and relight the stove, with the pipe having a two inch gash in it. This was a guy in his twenties, not some old senile guy. Part of my report read, "maintenance man shut off gas, told tenant not to turn on gas or try to light stove because it would cause an explosion. Tenant promptly cut on gas, tried to relight stove and caused an explosion (Duh)." I also noted that "on arrival the occupants were acting in much the same manner as Curly when Moe pokes him in the eyes."

He decided to sue, and his lawyers looked at my report, which was totally factual, including the Curly part. I think the accuracy of the report was why they decided not to sue, but there was a notation that the obvious consternation of the Captain in charge about the foolishness of the plaintiff's conduct would not help their case.

The guy wasn't hurt, except for some singed arm hair, although he was concerned about his tattoos being damaged. Hey, how come guys that can afford $5,000 worth of tattoos can't pay their own rent?

[Rte66]

All the way through the thread, I just kept wondering (I didn't read the continuation of the story) if she checked those entry dates from 2004 and 2005 to see if she had scrips then.

What if the comments weren't meant for her, but were about somebody else?

[Mamzelle]

LOL! A patient's behavior is part of the documented history.

This was unprofessional of Walgreens, but don't put me on the jury if you want any money.

Sometimes I think patients ought to be sued! They are "seductive" (sexually harrassing), they lie for drugs, they make a clinic or ER their personal staging ground for their life's miseries, and take everything out on personnel.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

Where in the story did it happen?

The story says that her friend picked up the medication, and read the comments, and called Walgreens. That's enough for publication.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

"My point was that the lawsuit and the resultant new story compromise her medical privacy far more than anything that she is complaining about, and I made that comment in response to another poster who had mentioned HIPAA ramifications."


I see your point. I agree that the "loud" mention of Ms. Karp's name and medication might be a HIPAA violation, but of course that is not what she is suing for. And for good reason. Even if that was a violation of HIPAA, it's a long way from a payday. She would have to prove actual damages - for starters, that someone heard it. Even then it would only be negligence, with low damages. Say she sues, and wins, and Walgreens gets hit with a fine. What's in it for Ms. Karp? Or more to the point, Ms. Karp's attorney?

The Florida incident is much more clear cut, and, I assume holds the potential for punitive damages.

[GOP_Proud]

< Whatever happened to going to the owner/manager, throwing a fit and refusing to ever do business with them again while telling your story to everyone who will listen? >

Normally, I would agree with you. This is a situation where a person already has a mental problem and it's exacerbated by what she read. I'm not for a million dollar suit, but it does have to be made known how serious this is.

I, for one, do not mess with anyone on this type medication. They have irrational feelings. What if it pushed her over the edge to the point of coming back with a gun?

[L98Fiero]

"What if it pushed her over the edge to the point of coming back with a gun?"

People have done that for less, I suppose. Expecting rationality out of irrational people, for whatever reason, is a bit of wishful thinking on my part.

[Utah Girl]

Wow, what do you have against pharmacists? They go to pharmacy school, which totals 6 years minimum (bachelor's degree with 2 more years.) Grades have to be top-notch, because those people who don't get into medical school or dental school usually opt for pharmacy school.

As far as just pouring pills into bottles, that is actually the pharmacy technicians job. The pharmacist verifies the medication is what was prescribed by the doctor, verifies there is no interaction (which is made easier by computers, but still requires judgment calls.) The pharmacist is also responsible for answering any questions about any medication or condition that the dr didn't answer (and there is a lot of that at times.)

As far as compounding medications, there is less and less of that all the time. However some drs will still prescribe that 'special' ointment/lotion.

I totally agree with your statement about professionalism. Unfortunately many chains have really cut resources in the pharmacy, and will put unqualified people behind the counter with little training. It's always the bottom line. I was going to be a pharmacist, but didn't like the direction it was going. Too much emphasis on getting the most number of scripts filled with the least amount of people, and way too much hassle with the insurance companies.

[CougarGA7]

They need to just name the next anti-depresant drug Nucking Futs. Then you dont have to put it in the comments.

[ozzymandus]

I just wonder what sort of behavior she had exhibited in the pharmacy in the past to get this sort of notoriety.

[Responsibility2nd]

ping to me

[John Robertson]

I've got nothing against pharmacists whatsoever. I think they for the most part are highly professional.

But I stand by what I say regarding the job description I laid out for them. Six years in school (bachelor's plus two years pharmacy school)? Because we are very highly medicated in this society (likely overmedicated), we need more and more pharmacists. Which is why the major chains are cutting deals with kids BEFORE they graduate from pharm school with offers that START them in the 80s to $90s. Why, is it a hugely skilled job? No, but laws and regulations make sure that there is a "professional" barrier between prescriber and patient--thus the modern-day pharmacist, who really does....

Take pills out of big bottles and put them into little bottles. Software does all the rest. That line you always get, Do you have any questions for the pharmacist?, is corporate policy handed down by lawyers. If they're ever sued, they can say, We ASKED if there were any questions.

And, have you ever asked a pharmacist a question about your medication? They look at the label...and start reading you POSSIBLE side effects.

Two years? On top of four of undergrad work? If it weren't for red tape and "tradition" (another word for the trappings of a profession that the profession itself maintains so as to sustain its "mystique"), I truly believe one could learn all one has to know to be a topnotch modern pharmacist in six months, and even that might be too long.

At least that's what a couple honest pharmacist friends have told me when they were sure no one was looking.