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A former North Platte pharmacist, who was fired from his job, will face a disciplinary hearing Dec. 6 before the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Regulation and Licensure. Mark C. Kenny, 52, 2600 Cedarberry, was the Director of Pharmacy for the Union Pacific Railroad Employees Health System in North Platte. He was relieved of duty June 20, 2006 and ordered not to return, according to court records filed at the time. The locks on the pharmacy doors were changed and the alarm system reset after Kenny’s departure. According to the documents obtained from the HHS, Kenny supplied his wife Pat Sarafem and Norvasc from the pharmacy without a prescription for three years. The HHS said the original prescriptions were written by a North Platte physician but never renewed. The attorney general's office said Kenny also dispensed Vioxx to “DF,” whose identity is unknown, in exchange for $125 in 2006, after the drug had been withdrawn from the market in 2004. Kenny admitted he knew the drug had been withdrawn, according to an investigation by the attorney general's office. In June of 2006, a state pharmacy inspector conducted a control substances accountability audit at the UP pharmacy for the period between April 30, 2005 through June 21, 2006. The inspector found a 21-percent shortage of Hydrocodeine from listed inventories. The same audit turned of a 30-percent overage of Oxycodone, according to HHS records. In September 2006, Kenny and his attorney met with investigators but Kenny refused to answer any questions, the attorney general's documents said. The attorney general’s office accused Kenny of unprofessional conduct, practicing outside the scope of pharmacy and failing to maintain records. HHS records show that the UP Pharmacy in North Platte had not applied to utilize pharmacy technicians and had no pharmacy technician control procedures at the time of the investigation. Another pharmacist, Jennifer Anthony, sought and was granted a protection order by a Lincoln County District Judge John Murphy that orders Kenny to refrain from having any contact with her last year. The court order indicated Anthony reported Kenny to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, who licenses pharmacists in Nebraska, for wrongfully using drug manufacturer coupons for his personal gain, selling drugs that were pulled off the market without prescriptions, keeping a medication stock of prescriptions returned by patients or expired drugs for his personal use and using controlled medications. Anthony said, in an affidavit, that Kenny warned her that she should have “stiff consequences” and that he had a “hard hand.” She said Kenny became enraged when she confronted him about the drug storage and use and that he stomped his feet and smacked his fist in his hand while yelling at her. Anthony wrote, in the affidavit, that she feared Kenny and that he once grabbed her foot, raised it above her head and pushed on it until she fell. The health system employees are not directly employed by UP, according to spokesman Mark Davis. He said it would be inappropriate to comment since the health system is a different company contracted to provide health services to UP. Kenny has been a pharmacist since 1979, according to HHSLR records. Anthony has been a pharmacist since 1999.
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