Hurt My Feelings....i'll Sue!

[kevmicsmi]

Palm Beach woman sues Walgreens over insulting comments on prescription

By Missy Stoddard
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 8 2006

"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.

"The Drug Utilization Review (DUR) includes a notes field intended for the pharmacist to use to enter reminders and patient requests," Hively said. "We want to ensure that our pharmacy employees are acting in a proper and professional manner so we are looking into this matter."

The notes field is intended for internal use as a private reminder for the pharmacist, Hively said.

For Karp, seeing the printout underscored her long-held fears of being labeled for taking medication to stabilize her moods.

In August, she moved full time from Connecticut to the town of Palm Beach. When she was younger, Karp said she self-medicated her angst with alcohol and drugs. She enjoyed eight years of sobriety before relapsing and is nearing the two-year mark of again being sober, she said. Now, she is struggling to sleep and consumed with worry.

"I'm thinking they're thinking here comes psycho, that they're laughing at me as I come in the store," she said. "I had enough trouble picking these [medications] up in the first place."

At the Walgreens pharmacies Karp patronized in Connecticut, she said that on more than one occasion she asked store employees to be discreet when discussing her medications. Many times, she said, employees would loudly call Karp's name and make reference to her medications. It would make Karp cringe.

"A person has the right to have whatever medications they're taking to be private," she said. "I'm so private that I never talk about my medications and now they're telling me that I'm psycho, crazy."

While preparing for a trip to Los Angeles, Karp on Feb. 27 had a friend go to the Walgreens on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and Australian Avenue to pick up the Ambien. Attached to the printout with the drug information was the Drug Utilization Review, containing the comments.

Karp's friend immediately contacted Walgreens and left a voicemail on an 800 number. Someone from Walgreens called back first thing the next morning and "apologized profusely," noting that the comments never should have been written. Karp's lawyer, Cathy Lively, said she made more than a dozen phone calls to Walgreens, all to no avail. She said she received "a very generic `We'll investigate.'"

Since the notes have been in the computer since at least September 2004, the date of the first entry, it's anyone's guess how many Walgreens employees may have read them, Lively said.

The company Web site says there are 5,122 stores nationwide, with 673 in Florida. The site boasts that Walgreens new computer system for filling prescriptions links all stores into a single network.

Lively said the notes would not be an issue if the entry contained something helpful, such as the patient requests not to call out her name.

"But to put the demeaning terms crazy and psycho is not a patient preference and is not going to help a staff person provide a service," she said.

Leslie Weiner, a West Palm Beach licensed clinical social worker, says the words crazy and psycho are not diagnostic terms. Rather, they are "slang and very judgmental," she said, and could be extremely distressing for a patient.

Countless other Walgreens customers could unknowingly be in the same situation as Karp, according to Lively.

"There a lot of medications with stigmas and sensitivities," she said. "A man taking Viagra, what are they going to be labeled? Do you want slanderous, derogatory comments put in the system?

"My client is not psychotic and not insane or incompetent, but the inference is there. If everybody treated for depression is deemed crazy and psycho, there are real problems," Lively said.

Unbelievable. Why do people think it is worth money if they get their feelings hurt?:bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk:

 

[Bishka]

Give me a break. Seriously, people like this bother me. I'm bipolar, do I have a problem with people knowing that, no? Who gives a whoodle-de-doodle about it.

This quote cracked me up, "My client is not psychotic and not insane or incompetent" Oh really?

 

[Buttons*]

Well, i'm sueing standing_alone for calling me fat... is there a problem with that?

 

[kevmicsmi]

:biglaugh:

Give me a break. Seriously, people like this bother me. I'm bipolar, do I have a problem with people knowing that, no? Who gives a whoodle-de-doodle about it.

This quote cracked me up, "My client is not psychotic and not insane or incompetent" Oh really?

:biglaugh:

No kidding. Here is a solution, if they hurt your feelings, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!:banghead3

 

[BUDDY]

I've been called stupid, ignorant, intolerant, bigotted, hateful, an idiot, a lunatic, a conservative wacko and a warmonger while a RF. I think I will get a lawyer.

 

[kevmicsmi]

:biglaugh:

I've been called stupid, ignorant, intolerant, bigotted, hateful, an idiot, a lunatic, a conservative wacko and a warmonger while a RF. I think I will get a lawyer.

:biglaugh: Calling all ambulance chasers

 

[kevmicsmi]

Well, i'm sueing standing_alone for calling me fat... is there a problem with that?

That sounds reasonable, although I would sue standing alone's employer, and Walmart if he/she goes there, because they have more money!

 

[Smoke]

I wouldn't have sued, but I would definitely have taken my complaint as high as I needed to go in the Walgreen's organization, and in the meantime I would have switched pharmacies.

It shouldn't even be necessary for a customer to request that her name and the name of her medication not be called out for others to hear. That kind of conduct is highly unprofessional and a breach of confidentiality.

Likewise, it's highly unprofessional for a pharmacist to make notes on a patient's file labeling her psycho and crazy.

Walgreen's should have addressed the problem in a timely and professional manner. Is it worth suing over? Maybe not, but that's a judgment call. A little professional conduct at Walgreen's would have prevented the matter from even coming up.

 

[kevmicsmi]

I wouldn't have sued, but I would definitely have taken my complaint as high as I needed to go in the Walgreen's organization, and in the meantime I would have switched pharmacies.

It shouldn't even be necessary for a customer to request that her name and the name of her medication not be called out for others to hear. That kind of conduct is highly unprofessional and a breach of confidentiality.

Likewise, it's highly unprofessional for a pharmacist to make notes on a patient's file labeling her psycho and crazy.

Walgreen's should have addressed the problem in a timely and professional manner. Is it worth suing over? Maybe not, but that's a judgment call. A little professional conduct at Walgreen's would have prevented the matter from even coming up.

Completely and totally agree, Walgreen's employees acted like fools, and that is why she should go to a different pharmacy, nothing more nothing less

 

[Circle_One]

Give me a break. Seriously, people like this bother me. I'm bipolar, do I have a problem with people knowing that, no? Who gives a whoodle-de-doodle about it.

This quote cracked me up, "My client is not psychotic and not insane or incompetent" Oh really?

But that's just you, Becky, not everyone is as open about themselves and their afflictions (for lack of a better word at the moment), as you are.

A person does have the right to keep her private life, private. If she doesn't want anyone to know she's clinically depressed, she has that right to keep it private and to not be ridiculed for being depressed.

While I think suing the company is going a tad too far, I'm appauled at the actions of the Walgreens workers. Everyone has the right to have their opinions of people, but they don't have the right to humiliate someone because they think certain things of that person. This woman has every right to be upset by this.

 

[robtex]

Well, i'm sueing standing_alone for calling me fat... is there a problem with that?

Ashley you are not overweight. I saw your pictures you are gonna be a real head-turner for the guys next year on which ever college campus you choose.

 

[Yerda]

I've been called stupid, ignorant, intolerant, bigotted, hateful, an idiot, a lunatic, a conservative wacko and a warmonger while a RF. I think I will get a lawyer.

Conservative wacko? Hey that's one more than me! Pass your lawyer over to me when you're done please.

 

[spacemonkey]

The think that I find of interest in this story is how the writer states that the "psycho" lady used drugs and alcohol in the PAST to "self-medicate her angst" as if she's still not doing the same thing with the Ambien and whatever else she's picking up at Walgreen's (it not just Ambien, an insomnia aid, that she's picking up to get labled "psycho" I'll bet).Just as long as your drug is made my Phizer, Bristol-Meyers, Anheisur-Busch, Jack Daniel's, or Starbuck's you are OK.

 

[Pah]

:biglaugh: :biglaugh:

No kidding. Here is a solution, if they hurt your feelings, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!:banghead3

I have another solution - if they want to be unprofessional, take away their license.

 

[turk179]

I would be upset as well and when I was done I would go to McDonald's and sue them for making me overweight:sarcastic .

 

[jamaesi]

Likewise, it's highly unprofessional for a pharmacist to make notes on a patient's file labeling her psycho and crazy.

When I worked at part-time at a facial surgeon's office we put warnings in the patient's file if they weren't the nicest of people.

The person who broke our door in a hissy fit over something so little I can't remember that we had to call the POLICE to remove them (they also had a warrant out for their arrest so the cops were more than happy to come pick him up) got called insane and some other choice words in their private file.
People who yelled at us and threw things and had a snitfit because their (welfare) insurance would not cover comestic surgery like nose-jobs got a note saying that they were a little unreasonable and to be careful around them.

I'm currently curious as to if this woman is a perfect saint who is just being judged or if she's a problem paitent. If it's the latter, she can cry me a river, build me a bridge, and just get over it. Problem paitents are scary.



The breaking paitent confidence was a very bad thing, I will agree, and should never have been done.

 

[Buttons*]

Ashley you are not overweight. I saw your pictures you are gonna be a real head-turner for the guys next year on which ever college campus you choose.

aww, thanks!

that was a joke from a "debate" Alyssa and I had though.

 

[standing_alone]

Well, i'm sueing standing_alone for calling me fat...

Sue all you want! I don't have any money.

That sounds reasonable, although I would sue standing alone's employer, and Walmart if he/she goes there, because they have more money!

Hah! I'm currently unemployed and I don't shop at Wal-Mart!

 

[standing_alone]

I think suing is taking it too far, but I understand the lady's feelings. Maybe Walgreens should have conducted themselves more professionally, but I think the woman should have filed a complaint with Walgreens (I agree pretty much with what MidnightBlue said) and switched pharmacies. I've had to pick up prescription meds for my mental illness as well and I wouldn't have liked it announced to anyone within hearing range. It's not that I'm ashamed of my disorder, it's just that it's not everyone's business.

 

[LongGe123]

I don't think suing is taking it too far in this case. I was surprised reading this thread, to see so many people ridiculing the idea of suing in this case. This pharmacist has broken some serious conduct rules, and I think it's far too easy for people to say things like "JUST GO SOMEWHERE ELSE" or "GET OVER IT". What the hell do you really know about it anyway? I think it's fair to say this woman's circumstances are a little different from yours right now. If you were exactly in her position, you couldn't possibly claim now that you would definitely act differently. (by the way, this 'you' I'm referring to is really the earlier replies, not just one person, just in case anyone in particular was getting stressed and thinking of suing me).

I think that there are way too many people clogging up the legal system with ridiculous claims, but I don't think that this one counts amongst those. What about cases of criminals suing their victims for bodily harm, after times when their crimes went wrong and they accidentally got clubbed while robbing someone in the street? What about the case of the colleague who said something in jest and ends up in court on a harrassment charge? Aren't these the cases that are a bit stupid?