CAMARILLO : Hospital Sued by Ex-Pharmacy Official

The former director of pharmacy at Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo filed a lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court on Monday, claiming that he was wrongfully terminated in May.

Anthony Demourkas of Thousand Oaks asked the court to award him compensatory damages for emotional stress suffered since losing his job and for the loss of earnings and employment benefits.

Demourkas would not comment on the lawsuit when reached at home Monday. His attorney was out of town and unavailable for comment.

A spokeswoman for the hospital, which merged with St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard in March, could not be reached.

The lawsuit said Demourkas was employed at Pleasant Valley from April, 1974, until May, when he was dismissed. He was the full-time pharmacy director and designated pharmacist-in-charge, the lawsuit said.

A month after the two facilities merged, the lawsuit said Demourkas was instructed to only have pharmacy technicians at Pleasant Valley verify the accuracy of prescriptions before releasing them to patients.

Pharmacy technicians are only supposed to fill or process such prescriptions under California law, the lawsuit said. Pharmacists must sign off on prescriptions before releasing them to patients, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, Demourkas refused to comply with the demand and was fired May 11. He said administrators told him that his job was being phased out as part of the merger.

But Demourkas told hospital officials that they could not legally eliminate his position because California Pharmacy Law requires them to have a pharmacist-in-charge on the location where prescriptions are handed out, it said.