Becoming a pharmacist or pharmacy technician takes money, time, effort, and hard work. You undergo extensive training, grueling tests, and the tedious and expensive license application procedure to start practicing. The hard work of obtaining the permit makes it painful to have a minor complaint, resulting in permit revocation or suspension. At San Jose License Attorney, we understand how difficult it is for pharmacists & pharmacy technicians to defend their licenses. Our attorneys are available to protect your permit, reputation, and career from your licensing agency.

Duties of Pharmacists

Pharmacists play pivotal roles in the healthcare industry. They ensure patients receive the correct prescription and guidance on the medicine prescribed. Discussed below in detail are the duties of these professionals:

Dispensing Medications

As a pharmacist or pharmacy tech, you oversee counting the tablets a physician prescribes, develop bottle labels, and correctly document and handle medication for patients. This responsibility involves more clerical work.

Seeking Answers From Prescribers

Physicians and clinicians handle multiple patients daily, and in the process, they could be confused or tired, making them write the incorrect prescription accidentally. When doubts exist about the type of medication a clinician prescribes, the pharmacist must question the prescription's accuracy and corroborate if the prescribed medication’s formulation of dosage fits a patient’s medical needs. You do not just issue medicines as written on the prescription.

The pharmacy is the final guarantee line with an intricate healthcare system struggling to address various medical ailments. Today, pharmaceutical companies manufacture different drug brands to address the same health conditions. The original brands are considered more effective in treating diseases but are usually expensive, making it impossible for some patients to access them. Therefore, generic drugs are also available, are cost-effective, and help treat the same conditions as the original brands. As a pharmacist, you should question the brand of medication a doctor prescribes to a patient, particularly when the patient cannot afford it, and find a generic alternative to guarantee proper treatment.

Guaranteeing Patient Safety

Every licensed healthcare professional, pharmacists included, is responsible for ensuring patient safety. You accomplish this by checking a patient’s drugs when they require a refill or new prescription. Dispensing the wrong medication to a patient could result in adverse side effects or allergic reactions, risking the life of a patient. So, you must understand the side effects of certain medications and a patient's medical history to reduce the chances of severe side effects or hazardous drug interactions.

Counseling Patients

Before patients leave the hospital with medication, they should understand drug interactions or synergism with other drugs, foods, or alcohol and any side effects that they could experience. It is your duty to counsel patients on these drugs and educate them on how they must take their prescriptions, any side effects that could stem from using the drugs, and the appropriate action to take during adverse effects. Experienced and dedicated pharmacists will make follow-up phone calls to ensure the patient uses the medication as prescribed and has no adverse effects. If the patient experiences side effects, the expert gives pointers to minimize them.

Participating in Continuing Education Courses

Pharmacy is ever-evolving, and pharmacists must stay updated with these changes by enrolling in and completing continuing education programs. Licensing agencies are strict with these programs to the extent they will initiate disciplinary measures or fail to renew your license for not participating in continuing education courses. The courses are essential because they update you with new drug approvals, recalls, and other drug adjustments like dosage, interactions, and warnings. With the pharmaceutical industry frequently evolving, so are the laws governing the industry. Undertaking these programs ensures you understand the new legislation and are compliant to avoid legal trouble.

Pharmacy Technician Roles

Pharmacy assistants have unique responsibilities that involve working closely with chemists and patients. Pharmacy technicians, otherwise called pharmacy aides or assistants, work under the stewardship of pharmacists, making their duties overlap with those of pharmacists. However, as a pharmacy assistant, your primary role is to perform clerical work, including:

  • Communicating with the doctor for refills or prescriptions
  • Make packaging labels
  • Ensure proper records of drugs in stock
  • Operating the cash register
  • Filling labeled bottles with medication and directions
  • Resolve customer complaints
  • Address insurance matters affecting patients

California Board of Pharmacy (CBOP) Disciplinary Measures

The California CBOP sets regulations or disciplinary guidelines relating to the industry and enforces them. Therefore, the primary responsibilities of the licensing agency include:

  • Championing for high-standard pharmaceutical care
  • Promoting patient education, health, and life quality
  • Providing quality counseling on pharmaceutical care
  • Safeguarding the health, safety, and well-being of patients

CBOP prioritizes the public and ensures that controlled substances and hazardous drugs intended for medical use are safely dispensed and used by the patients. When you have a history of abuse, have an ongoing case of abuse, or are diverting controlled substances or drugs, CBOP will take stringent measures against your license because your actions put the public at risk.

The licensing agency establishes disciplinary processes and measures to safeguard the public. Therefore, when the board intends to take disciplinary action against you, they must be guided by the guidelines.

When evidence in your case points to a violation, the CBOP can impose several penalties, including license revocation. If your license is on the line, the board must allow you to defend yourself in settlement negotiation or administrative proceedings overseen by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). Strict deadlines apply in these processes, particularly when you receive an accusation notice. You will have fifteen days to respond. If you do not file an answer within the timeline, CBOP will enter a default decision, resulting in automatic license withdrawal or cancellation. If you are unfamiliar with these processes, you should speak to an experienced pharmacist licensure defense attorney to help protect your right to fight for your license and career.

Violation Categories and Potential Disciplinary Measures

The state’s pharmacy statutes have identified violations that trigger investigations and disciplinary action by the board. These violations are categorized depending on severity, each attracting different disciplinary measures. The violations are grouped into the ones that result in the least severe and most severe. Category one has the most lenient punishment, while category four carries the harshest disciplinary measures. The penalties based on category are as follows:

  1. Category One

Offenses that belong to category one are:

  • Breach of recording, inventory control, and practice scope conditions
  • Isolated or minor failures to obey or implement prescription refill, labeling, and drug-substitution conditions
  • Failure to update or furnish CBOP or other licensing agencies with information
  • Failure to ensure adequate supervision
  • Failure to ensure the proper security and cleanliness of premises, hazardous or controlled drugs
  • Breach of packaging, reporting, and security control conditions
  • Infringements stemming from breach of education and licensure privileges, regardless of where the offense happens

When the evidence shows you committed any of these violations, you risk the loss of your permit and twenty-four months of license probation, with a revocation being the maximum punishment. Hire a licensed attorney to help defend these allegations for a case dismissal. If a dismissal is unavailable, the attorney can negotiate to have the CBOP stay the license cancellation and impose license probation for two years instead. Probation is a more favorable punishment because it lets you continue practicing.

  1. Category Two

Offenses or misconduct that fall under this category two are:

  • Obtaining referral payments or allowances
  • Engaging in deceptive or misleading advertising or marketing
  • Failure to adhere to conditions to secure inventory control, prescription, and security conditions of controlled substances
  • Engaging in a repeat offense involving inventory control, record keeping, and practice scope conditions
  • Failure to comply with standards set for the designated representative or in-charge pharmacist
  • Dispensing or issuing dangerous or controlled drugs online on a small scale without prescription
  • Gross negligence, immorality, incompetence, or excessive issue of controlled drugs
  • Buying, trading, or moving dangerous devices or substances to or from unsanctioned parties
  • Criminal offenses that do not encompass drug addiction, controlled substances, hazardous drugs, or tools.

The least disciplinary measure under this category is license revocation and 36 months of probation. The probationary term will increase to 60 months if your violation encompasses diversion or self-administration of controlled drugs. Your offense will fall in this category if it poses possible harm and entails disregard for public safety. Also, any violation involving glaring or obvious contravention of dangerous drugs, devices, or controlled drug distribution belongs to this group. Generally, breaches in this group reflect on your competence, ethics, diligence, and competence.

  1. Category Three

Offenses or misconduct that fall under this group are those that pose or cause substantially more harm than violations in category two. Besides, they entail intentional disregard of laws regarding the issuance and distribution of controlled drugs. The common accusations you could face under category three are:

  • Creating, perpetuating, or engineering a shortage of drugs
  • Disregarding the Drug Supply Chain Security Act conditions
  • Issuing or dispensing medications devoid of valid prescriptions and to unauthorized persons
  • An infringement of your duties of ensuring sufficient prescription and dispense of controlled drugs
  • Engaging in fraudulent activities relating to your license
  • A repeat offense or severe offense involving illegal possession of hazardous drugs, devices, substances, syringes, and hypodermic needles
  • Forging prescriptions
  • Obtaining controlled or dangerous substances illegally
  • Not keeping proper records for purchase or dispense of hazardous drugs and devices

When found guilty of these violations, you risk license revocation, license suspension for ninety days, and 36 to 60 months of permit probation. Cases involving self-administration of medicine, alcohol abuse, or diversion of controlled or hazardous drugs attract a maximum probationary period of 60 months.

  1. Category Four

The most severe violations of CBOP regulations are prescribed under category four, and they include:

  • Unlawful controlled drugs importation, transportation, possession, and sale
  • Repeat of violations prescribed under categories one, two, and three
  • Breach of regulated self-administration of controlled drugs that elevate the threat of infection
  • Criminal convictions for infringements encompassing alcohol abuse, addiction, or diversion of hazardous drugs, devices, or controlled drugs

Your license will automatically be revoked if the board finds you guilty of violating this category.

Contesting Accusations Filled With The California State Board of Pharmacy

You should consult a profound licensure attorney immediately after you learn about a complaint against you. Early interventions by an attorney lead to solutions that prevent harsh disciplinary measures. If a settlement negotiation fails, the attorney will represent you in the administrative proceeding presided over by an ALJ.

The administrative process is like the court process. Once the CBOP’s lawyer makes their assertions, your attorney will have the opportunity to poke holes in the arguments by cross-examining the board’s witnesses and presenting circumstances in mitigation. The burden of proof in this case is on the deputy attorney general representing the CBOP, who should demonstrate that you are unfit to hold the license or should face disciplinary action.

Securing a Favorable Outcome in the Administrative Process

Winning the administrative process is not always about having the case dismissed. A win is any favorable result from the proceeding, depending on your case’s circumstances, which is why your win could be someone else’s loss. The facts of the case an ALJ takes into account when establishing the appropriate punishment include:

  • Whether your patient or a member of the public sustained harm
  • The severity of the harm stemming from your violation
  • Previous disciplinary measures the CBOP has imposed, like reprimand
  • The gravity of your accusations
  • A criminal record or conviction significantly related to your profession could hamper your capacity to perform your professional roles.
  • Whether your behavior amounts to gross incompetence, recklessness, or negligence
  • Whether your violation was intended for financial benefits

Many license defenses focus more on mitigating. For instance, when you are accused of controlled substance abuse, you will not have evidence to disprove the charges. However, your attorney can present mitigating factors like enrollment in drug rehabilitation to compel the ALJ to recommend lenient punishment that does not involve the loss of a professional license through suspension or revocation.

Other mitigating circumstances you can present depending on your case’s facts are:

  • Written statements from your colleagues, employer, or supervisor to support your competency.
  • Letters or rehabilitation certificates from therapists or psychologists to prove completion of the relevant rehabilitation program.
  • Favorable substance or alcohol screening results
  • Physical and mental evaluation to show you are fit to resume work

This evidence can compel the ALJ to recommend probation instead of revocation. All you need is an attorney to help you gather evidence to build solid arguments.

Find a Competent Healthcare Professional License Attorney Near Me

An investigation or allegation from California CBOP seeking disciplinary measures against your license does not guarantee a loss or make your case hopeless. As a pharmacist or pharmacy assistant, you are the last line of defense in the healthcare system. A loss of practicing license because of an accidental mistake or exaggerated accusation should not be entertained. At San Jose License Attorney, we are eager to discuss your defense options and gather evidence in mitigation. Call us at 408-850-3740 to evaluate your case.