On-site pharmacy must monitor care home's drugs, owner says

From the Globe and Mail:
Sunridge Place residents whose medication costs have shot up since they were forced to move out of Duncan's Cowichan Lodge care home can complain all they want. But whether it's vitamins, minerals, herbal remedies or prescription medications, there's no way around purchasing the pills they need from the private-care home's on-site pharmacy.

According to Bob Mehr, owner of Pacific Compounding Pharmacy, the company under contract to Sunridge Place, said the B.C. College of Pharmacists requires that the same designated provider supply all medications for long-term care residents.

"When you have a contract with a particular nursing home, you are responsible for all the medications provided at that particular nursing home, including vitamins and over-the-counter medications," said Mr. Mehr, who owns nine pharmacies on Vancouver Island, including three that are located in P3 long-term care homes.

"Where you are in a care facility, everything the patient gets has to be prescribed by a physician and the pharmacy is obligated to supply that. If we don't we are interfering with the doctor's care." ...more