Dept. of Health Suspends Smithfield Pharmacy License

Stating that its inspectors had found nine violations of the state's prescription drug laws, the Rhode Island Dpeartment of Health on Oct. 9 suspended the license of Millenium Pharmacy on Appian Way in Smithfield.

The department also suspended the licenses of Mullenium pharmacist Christopher Rizzo and pharmacy technicians Roger Croteau and Angelina Chea.

According to a statement released this morning, inspectors from the health deparmtent and the state's Board of Pharmacy found that Millenium staffers had:

• stored prescriptions in plastic sandwich bags and used drugs from single-dose packages to refill bottles in the pharmacy's inventory;
• kept "a significant quantity" of misbranded and expired prescriptions;
• allowed customers to return unused portions of prescriptions, and dispensed the returned drugs to nursing homes;
• let pharmacy technicians — instead of pharmacists — make final inspections of prescriptions;
• dispensed drugs without valid prescriptions;
• failed to notify the board of pharmacy about lost prescriptions;
• lacked proper licenses for its pharmacy staff;
• not provided inspectors with evidence of its technician in training certificate;
• printed labels on prescriptions that did not identify the pharmacy of origin.

In addition, the Health department noted that Millenium staffers obstructed an inspection on Oct. 1 by hiding prescriptions that were not properly branded.