By Suzanne Sprague
Fort Worth, TX – Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 Reporter: For nearly two hours, patients of Tarrant County's public hospital system told of wading through a maze of confusing lines, of receiving the wrong prescriptions, and of sharing the few chairs and one bathroom at the new centralized pharmacy.
Patient #1: I was there on May 19th to pick up a prescription. I had to wait six hours for that, and in that time I saw two people pass out. Nobody from the pharmacy came out to check them. The security guard took one lady, picked her up, plopped her in a chair, and walked off.
Sprague: One woman said the pharmacy refused to refill her 70-year-old husband's pain and heart medication and wouldn't tell her why. So he began rationing what pills he had left.
Patient #2: Then on the 23rd I was going to have knee surgery, and he went with me to have knee surgery, and he just collapsed after that. The doctor said it was because he didn't have his medicine.
Sprague: He was in the hospital nine days because of the pharmacy error. The neighborhood pharmacies these patients once used were consolidated by JPS officials, who believed the move would save $800,000 a year. The new, centralized pharmacy is located in southeast Fort Worth and serves mostly indigent patients. It is the only facility they can use to take advantage of the reduced co-pay.
Patient #3: They're in wheelchairs, they're on crutches, and they can't even make it to the pharmacy. They're too far out in Hurst, in Arlington, in Stop Six. We need our medicine when at our clinics, when our doctors see us and writes our prescription. We need our medicine!
Sprague: The meeting also shed light on possible systemic problems with JPS. Wendy Whitener, a social worker with Cancer Care Services in Fort Worth, told the committee her company owes JPS thousands of dollars in prescription co-pays for which the hospital refuses to bill them.
Wendy Whitener, Cancer Care Services: Cancer Care is supposed to be directly billed, and for the past two years it has not happened.
Sprague: Such stories frustrated Tarrant County Commissioner Dionne Bagsby. She organized the citizens' committee that heard the complaints and suggestions last night. And she said the group may now look into issues that go beyond the new pharmacy.
Tarrant County Commissioner Dionne Bagsby: Obviously the system is not being responsive to the users of it, and that we need to look at the system and we need to make systemic changes to the system.
Sprague: And she added she has not been pleased with JPS officials insisting the problem is under control, although she stopped short of calling them dishonest.
Bagsby: They're simply trying to fend off the criticisms. That's the issue, I think. I think they're people of good will. They instituted this system without the pre-planning the pre- education they needed to do. They simply did it, and it has not worked.
Sprague: Bagsby's volunteer committee will meet later this week and prepare a list of recommendations for the hospital's board of directors meeting next week. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.