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Walgreens agrees to $7.5M settlement over alleged phony pharmacist

Original post made on Feb 4, 2020

Walgreens has settled a consumer protection lawsuit alleging that it put people's health at risk by allowing an unlicensed pharmacist to handle more than 745,000 prescriptions in the Bay Area.

Read the full story here Web Link posted Tuesday, February 4, 2020, 9:01 AM

Comments (4)

Posted by resident
a resident of Community Center
on Feb 4, 2020 at 10:00 am

Is any of this money going to Walgreens' customers? Or only to the lawyers and government?


Posted by Resident
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Feb 5, 2020 at 1:13 am

Be careful.
There are a lot of phony professionals nowadays.

How many people actually do a thorough check of educational credentials?
This state is full of people who have dubious credentials from universities and schools from overseas.

It is easy to pay off people for certifications, degrees, and references because many people who approve these degrees and certifications have been paid off.

In the past, our system was largely honor based.
People from other countries have been taking advantage of our system for decades but we have only recently started realizing this.

Be careful who you hire.
Peer reviewed scientific articles have also come under closer scrutiny since it is easy to pay off people to review them.




Posted by Nick
a resident of another community
on Feb 5, 2020 at 8:49 am

As phony as she is, I hope she at least had some schooling. ALL licenses should be verified in any profession. It's common sense.


Posted by CrescentParkAnon.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Feb 6, 2020 at 8:09 pm

Googling "Kim Thien Le" shows a picture of someone who is a Registered Nurse ... don't know if this is the same person. But a nurse would have some acquaintance for pharmacology one would think.

I don't know much about pharmacists, but isn't what they do basically just deciphering a doctor's request, then pattern matching a string on the prescription and a dosage and number to bottles of drugs stored on-site, then counting them out, then labelling it and doing the payment transaction. If asked questions they seem to rely on their experience or can look up relevant information in reference guides.

Can someone explain the offense here? Did she get prescriptions wrong?

In other words, it came to someone's notice that she was operating illegally, Walgreen's bad, but what was her training and what was the actual harm and damages except to show that someone who is not a licensed pharmacist can do the job of a pharmacist to some extent or another?

What is the fine in proportion to? Is it related to how much salary Walgreens saved by not paying her as much as a pharmacist?


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