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A western Iowa pharmacist has been sanctioned by the state for incorrectly filling multiple prescriptions for patients.
The Iowa Board of Pharmacy alleges that in June 2023, three weeks after he renewed his license to practice pharmacy in Iowa, Christopher Steele of Underwood incorrectly filled a prescription for a patient. In July, August and September of 2023, the board alleges, he incorrectly filled three additional prescriptions for a different patient.
The board has not publicly disclosed where Steele, 57, was working when the drugs were dispensed, the nature of the alleged errors, the types of drugs that were dispensed, or the effect the alleged errors had on the patients.
Steele recently agreed to settle the case by paying a $1,000 civil penalty and having his license placed on probation for one to two years. As part of the settlement, Steele will be required to complete an educational course on medication errors and patient safety.
Steele declined to comment on the matter other than to say the alleged errors occurred while he was working at the Foodland store in Woodbine.
Court records show that Steele’s hiring at Foodland resulted in a significant court decision on the scope of a state law that legislators passed in 2022 in an effort to discourage price gouging by staffing agencies working for health care entities.
Shortly after the legislation was signed into law, a staffing agency called PharmServ Solutions sued the Foodland store, alleging the store had asked PharmServ to provide a pharmacist for six days in early 2022. PharmServ routed Steele to the job, after which Foodland allegedly hired Steele as a permanent employee of the store’s pharmacy. PharmServ then sued Foodland, alleging the store was refusing to pay an agreed-upon fee of up to $30,000 for Steele’s hiring.
Foodland argued the new price-gouging law prohibited employment agencies in the health care field from charging fees when temporary workers were hired by the agency’s clients on a permanent basis.
PharmServ argued the law didn’t apply since Foodland was not a “health care entity” as defined by the legislation. A Harrison County judge disagreed and dismissed the lawsuit while ruling that the new law applied to Iowa pharmacies and pharmacists.