To be working as a pharmacist in the Des Moines, Iowa area means you have spent years in both undergraduate and pharmacy school earning your doctorate, including thousands of hours of work at your internship. On top of that, you devoted who knows how much time to studying for, taking, and passing the NAPLEX and MPJE exams. Then, just to maintain your pharmacist license, you need to complete the required continuing education every two years.
What all of this adds up to is that your pharmacist license is the result of a huge investment of a substantial part of your life. That is why if you are notified that someone has filed a misconduct complaint against you, it is vital that you take immediate steps to protect yourself. The best way to do that is to be working with one of the experienced attorneys from the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team. Fill out our website contact form, or call us at 888.535.3686, and we will schedule a confidential consultation to discuss your case and explain how we will help.
Pharmacists in Greater Des Moines
There are more than 2500 pharmacists working across the state of Iowa, with 800+ pharmacists employed in the Greater Des Moines area, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This covers a substantial part of central Iowa, including the cities of West Des Moines, Ames, Ankeny, Urbandale, Waukee, and Indianola, among others.
As you probably know if you are working as a pharmacist, the profession pays well. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual mean wage for a pharmacist in the Greater Des Moines area is more than $130,000 – about double the average for all occupations that the BLS tracks. When you combine a well-paid job with the Des Moines area’s lower-than-average cost of living, it means most pharmacists working in the area can live quite well.
In addition to large chains such as CVS and Walgreens, pharmacists in Greater Des Moines work in a number of different places, including independent pharmacies, hospitals, and care homes. If you are working in a retail pharmacy, it can be particularly important to maintain a clean disciplinary record with Iowa’s Board of Pharmacy. Patients who learn that a pharmacist who works at their usual pharmacy has been disciplined for misconduct may be inclined to take their prescriptions elsewhere.
The Board of Pharmacy makes it easy for anyone to check the status of a pharmacist’s license and to see whether the pharmacist has been disciplined in the past. It is also possible to separately search for disciplinary actions taken by the Board of Pharmacy over a period of time, without having to know the name of any of the pharmacists who were disciplined. In other words, if you are publicly disciplined by the Board, you can assume that the fact will go public.
You can see why you need to take steps to protect yourself if you learn that someone has filed a misconduct complaint against you. Your license, your reputation, your livelihood, and even your ability to work as a pharmacist could be at stake. When you retain one of the experienced attorneys from the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team, though, you will have someone in your corner who will be protecting your rights and fighting to defend you and your future. And the sooner you reach out to discuss your case, the better we will be able to defend you.
Working with one of our experienced professional license defense attorneys means that you won’t have to worry about missing any deadlines that may come up in your case. We’ll keep you up to date about everything that is going on. We can prepare you for any interview you may have with the Board’s investigator. If the Board requests documents or other information, we can help you prepare and produce the responsive materials. In some cases, we may conduct our own investigation to uncover possible evidence that can be used in your defense. And through the entire process, we can be the Board’s point of communication with you, so that you can focus on your work as a pharmacist while we focus on your defense.
Disciplinary Actions Against Pharmacists in Greater Des Moines
The Iowa Board of Pharmacy will discipline pharmacists for any one of a number of reasons. These include:
- Failing to keep accurate records
- Violating the Controlled Substances Act
- Attempting to or successfully convincing a patient that they cannot change pharmacies
- Treating patients in an unprofessional manner, including verbally abusing them
- Making sexual advances towards a patient
- Being convicted of a crime relating to controlled substances, cosmetics, drugs, medical devices, or a health-related profession
- Committing sexual abuse
- Engaging in false advertising
- Practicing pharmacy while under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Discriminating against a patient or a group of patients
- Being disciplined by another state’s licensing board
- Refusing to allow their pharmacy to be inspected
The Board makes it easy for anyone to file a misconduct complaint about a pharmacist. They are handled by Iowa’s Department of Inspections, Appeals, & Licensing and can be filed online. The person filing the complaint does not have to be a patient; they can be a co-worker, a family member, a patient, or anyone who believes they have information about a pharmacist’s misconduct.
Not every complaint filed with the Board will result in an investigation. The Board has limited powers, meaning that it can only investigate and discipline pharmacists for certain types of misconduct. For example, the Board itself notes that it “may not investigate billing/insurance complaints that do not allege a violation of the Board’s rules.”
If a complaint alleges actions that the Board does not have jurisdiction over, the Board will dismiss the matter, but may refer it to another agency if there is one that would be likely to have jurisdiction over the alleged misconduct.
In cases where the Board decides that it does have jurisdiction to investigate the alleged misconduct, it will do so. An investigator will look into the allegations, interviewing individuals who may have information about the matter and requesting and collecting relevant documents. In most cases, the accused pharmacist will be interviewed, as will the person who filed the misconduct complaint. It can go beyond that, however – the pharmacist’s colleagues might also be interviewed, and the investigator may request pharmacy and personal records that might relate to the allegations. Each investigation will be different, depending on the allegations made and the facts of that particular case.
Working with an experienced member of the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team during the investigation process can be extremely helpful. We will not only protect your rights throughout this critical stage, but also keep you informed as to what is going on and make sure you provide the level of cooperation with the process that the Board requires.
Help During Disciplinary Investigations
You are probably not used to a situation where someone sitting across the table from you is asking you one question after another about misconduct allegations that someone else has made against you. Most of us are not. It can be one of the most stressful situations you will ever be put through. But there are ways to reduce the stress of an investigatory interview.
Preparation can make a big difference in how your investigatory interview goes. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can help prepare you for it in advance. We can discuss the questions you can expect the investigator to ask you. We can also help you practice proper interview technique. What this means is that, unlike normal conversations, when you are answering questions in a disciplinary interview, you need to be much more careful about how you respond.
You have to focus on the question you’ve just been asked. Make sure you understand exactly what you’re being asked. Then take your time and formulate a careful response before you say anything. You do not get bonus points for answering quickly. And if you don’t understand any part of the question, ask for it to be clarified. You do not have to answer questions that are unclear.
One of the benefits of working with an attorney is that we can be with you during your interview. We can help make sure that the investigator’s questions are clear and that you understand them before you give your answer. It helps nobody if you provide muddled answers that don’t respond to the questions you’ve been asked, or if the questions themselves are unclear or unfair.
We can also help you when it comes to staying on top of any Board deadlines in your case, or responding to document or information requests from the investigator. Sometimes we will even conduct our own investigation, particularly if we believe the Board’s investigator has missed or ignored some important evidence that could be used in your defense. In most cases, we will also act as sort of a buffer between you and the Board, so that instead of contacting you directly about your case, the Board reaches out to us instead.
After the Investigation
The investigator will eventually prepare a report that summarizes the evidence collected in the case. The Board will review the report and will decide whether to dismiss the matter, resolve it with a confidential letter of concern, or move forward with formal allegations against you.
In many cases, the Board will offer to resolve the matter with a settlement agreement. In fact, most Board disciplinary cases that are not dismissed or resolved with a private warning letter will settle. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team understands the concerns that licensing boards have when they negotiate settlements of disciplinary matters. We regularly negotiate these for our clients, and our goal is to resolve matters in a way that has the least effect on your license and your ability to practice as a pharmacist.
The decision whether or not to settle your case is ultimately up to you. This is not something you can be forced into, and it is important to remember that if you are in the situation where the Board has offered to settle your case.
Cases that don’t settle will move to the hearing stage. The hearing will operate much like a trial, but will typically be before an administrative law judge (though it could also be before the entire Board or a panel of Board members). Both you and the Board will be able to have witnesses testify for your respective sides of the case, and you will be able to cross-examine the Board’s witnesses. Both of you will be able to introduce evidence and argue against having the judge accept the other side’s evidence where there are reasons to object.
If the case is before an administrative law judge, the judge will prepare a proposed ruling that the Board can adopt, reject, or modify – though typically the Board will accept it. If the ruling goes against you, this is when the Board will impose sanctions. It is not always the end of the road, however; an appeal is possible if a decision goes against you, though on limited grounds.
Cases that go to a formal hearing are ones that could not be settled for one reason or another. You’ll need a strong defense. Working with the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team means you’ll get one. This is not the time to try to defend yourself – you need the help of an experienced attorney.
Potential Outcomes
Of course, the best outcome is for your disciplinary case to be dismissed. But what if that doesn’t happen? What sanctions can the Board impose?
The Board has a lot of discretion when it comes to sanctioning pharmacists found to have committed misconduct. You could face the following:
- A citation or warning, which may or may not be public
- Probation, typically with a reporting requirement and sometimes with a requirement that you complete specified training before the probation is lifted
- Suspension of your license, either for a set period of time or until after you complete a requirement, such as additional training
- Revocation of your license
- Fines, up to $25,000
If you are publicly disciplined, that will be reflected on your online license record, and the public will be able to review the order (whether the result of a settlement or a hearing) that imposes sanctions.
The LLF National Law Firm Can Defend Your Pharmacist License in Greater Des Moines
No matter where in the greater Des Moines area you live or work – Des Moines itself, or West Des Moines, Urbandale, Johnston, Waukee, or any of the other towns in the area – the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is here to help you if your pharmacist license is in jeopardy because of a misconduct complaint. While generally speaking, we can help most if you bring us in early, we are also able to come in later in the game if you have been trying to manage things on your own and have decided you need help to effectively defend yourself.
Our experienced attorneys understand the laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that apply in pharmacist disciplinary cases in Iowa. We are ready to protect your rights and to fight to defend your license, your reputation, and your future. To learn more about how the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can help you, fill out our online contact form, or give us a call at 888.535.3686. The next step will be to schedule a confidential consultation where you will tell us about your case, and we will explain how our experienced attorneys can help.