Saturday, February 16, 2013

Massachusetts pharmacy board head fired after meningitis outbreak | Synopsis

Massachusetts pharmacy board head fired after meningitis outbreak

Medicare for All!
Medicare for All! by juhansonin
License (according to Flickr): Attribution License
Excerpt:

Authorities fired the director of the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy after he failed to investigate a complaint against New England Compounding Center, the company at the center of a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak, state officials said on Wednesday. NECC is linked to a meningitis outbreak that has infected more than 400 people and caused 31 deaths. Massachusetts officials said they uncovered a complaint against NECC by Colorado pharmacy regulators just months before the outbreak. The complaint, which said NECC was distributing drugs without patient-specific prescriptions, was forwarded on July 26 to James Coffey, director of the Massachusetts pharmacy board. Coffey failed to order an investigation or take any other action on the Colorado complaint, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's interim commissioner, Dr. Lauren Smith, said in a statement.

People:

James Coffey

Overall Sentiment: -0.29007

Relevance: 0.786512

Dr. Lauren Smith

Overall Sentiment: -0.0573915

Relevance: 0.607402

SentimentQuote
-0.093026"It is incomprehensible that Mr. Coffey and Ms. Manning did not act on the Colorado complaint given NECC's past, and their responsibility to investigate complaints," Smith said ...
-0.499305"I find the actions of NECC reprehensible," Smith said ...
-0.143511"I find the actions of NECC reprehensible," Smith said in the statement. "We have the right to expect that all companies producing medication for use in delivering health care to comply with laws designed to protect patient safety. But I also expect the staff charged with oversight to perform their duties to the highest standards. That failed to happen here."
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 3
  • Aggregate Sentiment: -0.735842
  • Mean: -0.24528066666667
  • Standard Deviation: 1

Susan Manning

Overall Sentiment: -0.13696

Relevance: 0.355624

Key:

  • Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
  • The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
  • The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

Organization: Colorado State Board of Pharmacy

Overall Sentiment: 0.0223678

Relevance: 0.591908

Organization: Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy

Overall Sentiment: -0.472086

Relevance: 0.581024

Organization: Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Overall Sentiment: -0.336402

Relevance: 0.365241

HealthCondition: meningitis

Overall Sentiment: -0.471345

Relevance: 0.401078

StateOrCounty: Colorado

Overall Sentiment: -0.164465

Relevance: 0.932204

Disambiguation: Location | PoliticalDistrict | AdministrativeDivision | GovernmentalJurisdiction | USStateReferences:

StateOrCounty: Massachusetts

Overall Sentiment: -0.31996

Relevance: 0.503722

Disambiguation: Location | PoliticalDistrict | AdministrativeDivision | GovernmentalJurisdiction | USStateReferences:
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