Janey Karp

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Missy Stoddard writes:

Palm Beach woman sues Walgreens over insulting comments on prescription

For years, Janey Karp has battled depression and anxiety with the help of prescription drugs. Though millions of Americans do the same, Karp admits she is intensely private and can't help but feel stigmatized for needing medication to feel normal.

So when the 53-year-old Palm Beach resident read the Walgreens printout attached to her prescription last week for the sleep aid Ambien, she couldn't believe her eyes. Typed in a field reserved for patient information and dated March 17, 2005, was "CrAzY!!" In another field, dated Sept. 30, 2004, it read: "She's really a psycho!!! Do not say her name too loud, never mention her meds by names & try to talk to her when ... " The information continued onto another page but was not attached.

"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.

...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.

Generally speaking, would you say that Americans take privacy issues seriously?

I think they do.

The onus is now on Walgreens to convince their consumers that the company does in fact respect privacy.

That might be a tough sell.