The White House Health Department improperly distributed prescription and over-the-counter drugs during the Trump administration. According to a report released earlier this month.
A report by the U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General found that the White House medical unit had “serious and systemic problems” with its pharmacy operations.
The report said the unit stored and distributed controlled substances without adequate records and occasionally distributed them to personnel who were not legally entitled to receive them. The unit, which is comprised of multiple clinics in the Washington, D.C. area and is supervised by the Department of Defense, misused Department of Defense funds by dispensing brand-name drugs instead of generic drugs.
In doing so, the employees increased the “risk of diversion of controlled substances,” the report added.
“Without the oversight of qualified pharmacy personnel, the White House Medical Department's drug administration operations are subject to prescribing errors and improper medication management, increasing risks to the health and safety of patients treated within the medical department. may have occurred,” the report states.
Other suspected problems include violating federal regulations that require records for Schedule II drugs to be separated from other drugs, the report found. Instead, records for Schedule II drugs such as fentanyl, morphine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone were kept in the same inventory as other drugs.
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There is no pharmacist on staff to supervise incorrect handling.
Many of the mishandlings of medicines and records occurred because authorities did not consider their operations to be pharmacies, the report concluded. Medications were stored and dispensed behind a door marked “Pharmacy” and were contained in vials bearing the unit's logo.
The report added that there were no pharmacists on staff in the medical department. Officials testified that the force had requested a pharmacy technician, but said no request had been made at the time of the investigation.
Inadequate dispensing of medicines may be explained by a lack of supervision over pharmacies. Officials interviewed could not explain which department was in charge of the medical department, the report added.
The unit only provided drug history from the Trump era.
To list all the medicines ordered by the White House Medical Unit, investigators requested data from the unit, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and the National Capital Region Medical Directorate.
In 2019, investigators asked the health department for data from the past five years, but received only data from 2017 to 2019 because the health department said it only kept records for two years.
Under similar policies, investigators only received data from 2017 to 2019 from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and data from 2018 to 2020 from the Metropolitan Medical Directorate.
The multi-year study included interviews with more than 120 stakeholders, including hospital administrators, military health care providers and pharmacists. Investigators also evaluated the former White House military office staff's records from 2009 to 2018.
“We found that the White House Medical Department maintained past patient eligibility practices that did not follow Department of Defense guidelines,” the report said. “A former White House Medical Unit medical provider said the unit operated “in the gray … helping those who needed help to accomplish this mission.''
An investigation begins after a high-ranking official makes a complaint.
The investigation was sparked in May 2018 by complaints about Republican Rep. Ronnie Jackson, who currently represents Texas' 13th Congressional District. He served as the White House physician under former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The congressman is not named in the report, but he served as White House medical director from 2010 to 2014.
USA TODAY has reached out to Jackson for comment.
In March 2018, Jackson stepped down from his role as the president's physician after President Trump nominated him to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. But after the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee interviewed current and former colleagues of Mr. Jackson, some of them alleged that Mr. Jackson led a hostile work environment in which he mishandled drug prescriptions. He withdrew his consideration of the position.
He was appointed as President Trump's chief medical advisor in February 2019.
