The former chief pharmacy officer at Columbus, Ohio-based Mount Carmel Health System has left her position amid an investigation into prescribing practices in which 34 patients are believed to have been given excessive or potentially lethal doses of pain medication, according to a WOSU radio news report.
Janet Whittey wrote the Ohio pharmacy board that she is no longer the "responsible pharmacist" for the hospital, according to an email obtained by WOSU.
"Please be advised that my submission of responsible pharmacist at Mount Carmel West is no longer valid, as I no longer work at Mount Carmel effective today," Ms. Whittey wrote in the email to the state board of pharmacy Feb. 5.
She is the second person known to have left the health system amid the investigation into the "excessive and potentially fatal" ordering of painkiller doses. The hospital fired William Husel, MD, in December, saying he ordered doses for at least 34 patients. Many of those patients died afterward..
Ms. Whittey was named in a wrongful death lawsuit last week. The lawsuit claims she was "was aware of inappropriate and unsafe prescribing, approving, and administering of Fentanyl by co-defendants, but failed to take action to prevent such inappropriate Fentanyl use from reoccurring."
Read the full report here.