Board Seeks to Pull Pharmacist’s License
By Jeannine Koranda, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.
May 18–HERMISTON — The Oregon Board of Pharmacy has recommended revoking the license of a Hermiston pharmacist and imposing a $20,000 civil penalty for what it said was his illegal use of prescription painkillers and a series of other violations.
The board, in an order dated May 7 and made public Thursday, also said that pharmacist Brad Wolfe allowed nonpharmacists to prepare and dispense prescriptions at his business, Cascade Clinical Pharmacy, from May 2005 until February 2007.
Wolfe, according to state documents, also took and consumed hydrocodone/APAP, a controlled substance, from Eastern Oregon Psychiatric Center Pharmacy between June 2006 and January 2007. The board also said Wolfe used oxycodone and hydrocodone without a prescription from 2002 through February 2007.
The proposed disciplinary action was sent to Wolfe on May 8. He has until May 29 to request a hearing with the board. As of Thursday, he had not filed a request, said Gary Miner, the board’s compliance director.
This is not first time Wolfe has come to the pharmacy board’s attention. On Feb. 23, the board placed him on probation and fined him $1,000 for not telling the psychiatric center about prior disciplinary actions against him taken by the Washington Board of Pharmacy.
In 2004, Wolfe was placed on probation for five years, the board’s documents show.
Until recently, Wolfe owned and ran Cascade Clinical Pharmacy in Hermiston. He also worked at Eastern Oregon Psychiatric Center Pharmacy in Pendleton, now called Blue Mountain Recovery Center.
Wolfe was a contract pharmacist at the psychiatric center from May 25, 2005, until Feb. 1, the Oregon Department of Human Services said. On Feb. 1, a pharmacy technician told the center’s superintendent about concerns that Wolfe was diverting drugs from the pharmacy, according to state documents.
Superintendent Kerry Kelly fired Wolfe the next day and reported him to the Oregon Board of Pharmacy.
The pharmacy technician said she became concerned when she went to check out Vicodin from a locked room where controlled drugs were kept, but found the painkiller already had been checked out under the initials of a part-time pharmacist who was not on duty at the time, the state said. Video surveillance showed Wolfe entering the locked room.
Including the charges that Wolfe stole drugs from the center’s pharmacy and forged another pharmacist’s initials, the board listed 12 violations in its notice of proposed disciplinary action.
Another allegation contends Wolfe was unable to account in an audit for losses of morphine and meperidine between February 2006 and April 2007.
The board also alleged Wolfe “aided and abetted individuals to engage in the practice of pharmacy without a pharmacist license” at Cascade Clinical Pharmacy.
Wolfe purportedly allowed two technicians at the pharmacy, one of whom was his wife Robbie Wolfe, to work in the pharmacy without supervision, Miner said.
Robbie Wolfe had no comment Thursday.
The state also alleges Wolfe allowed nonpharmacists to mix and dispense prescriptions without supervision and left his pharmacy unsecured.
He also allegedly operated the pharmacy while his license was suspended from Feb. 23 until March 24, the documents say.
Wolfe was disciplined earlier for lying on his 2001 license renewal application. He had said there were no disciplinary actions taken against him or pending against his pharmacist license in any state other than Oregon. But at that time, he had already signed a stipulated order with the Washington Board of Pharmacy.
In the Washington case, Wolfe in 1998 ordered and purchased compounding chemicals and controlled substances under the name Wind River Compounding or Brad Wolfe, R.Ph., without a pharmacy license. The business also had no license or state tax identification number.
The Oregon board fined Wolfe $5,000 for not listing the Washington case.
The Washington Board of Pharmacy said it has another current case open involving Wolfe, but no information was available about it.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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