An Iowa pharmacist who was alleged to be incorrectly reporting vaccinations and immunizations to the state for 15 years has been issued a warning by state regulators.
The Iowa Board of Pharmacy recently charged pharmacist Ellen Bridget Overholtzer-Strait of Malvern with failing to order and dispense medications as required by regulations and statewide protocols.
The regulations cited by the board required that pharmacists, after the administration of a vaccine, report the vaccination to Iowa’s Immunization Registry Information System, more commonly known as IRIS.
The board alleges that after two different patients, on two different occasions, went to a pharmacy in Glenwood for vaccinations, it was discovered that both patients had already received those vaccinations from a different pharmacy where Overholtzer-Strait worked, and that those vaccinations were not reflected in IRIS.
The board alleges that when Overholtzer-Strait was contacted after a complaint was filed with the board, she asserted she kept records of all the vaccinations she had administered but was unaware they weren’t somehow automatically reported to IRIS.
According to the board, she then worked to manually enter into IRIS all of the missed immunizations and vaccinations, including some that dated back to 2011.
The disciplinary case was resolved recently with a settlement agreement that calls for Overholtzer-Strait to pay a $500 civil penalty.
