Opinion ID: 758304
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Aka's and Valenzuela's Qualifications

Text: 38 WHC's official position specification form listed two qualifications for the job, previous hospital experience in pharmacy services and knowledge of medical terminology. The listed job responsibilities are quite varied, and include accepting drug and narcotic orders, distributing medications, answering questions and giving directions to the public, maintaining narcotic control records and inventory books, performing charging (that is, billing) functions, stocking pharmaceutical and IV supplies, performing patient census checks, evaluating, processing, and filling drug stock orders for satellite pharmacies, and monitoring the pharmacy's extemporaneous pre-pack list to identify items that should be pre-packaged. 12 39 Aka's application form for the Central Pharmacy Technician position listed his current position, OR Orderly, his hire date, August 6, 1972, and the highest degree he held, his MBPA in health service management. Aka was interviewed by Dr. Ann Breakenridge, WHC's Assistant Director of Pharmacy Clinical Services. After the interview, Breakenridge wrote on a WHC Interview Summary Report form: Mr. Aka is a longstanding WHC employee on MLOA [medical leave of absence]. Performed duties in the OR with some exposure to minimal pharmacy functions. Her assessment of Aka states: Mr. Aka has no skills which will be helpful as a pharmacy technician. He is aware of the drug delivery aspect of the job which is a minor part of the technician responsibilities. Schedule [illegible] responsibilities [illegible]. Mr. Aka's MBPA degree could be best utilized in other areas of the hospital. In a later affidavit, she added that Aka had displayed no enthusiasm during the interview, and said [i]ndeed he told me that he really was not interested in doing pharmacy work. Aka denies saying this. 40 Valenzuela's application form said that he did not have a college degree, and that he had been working at the hospital laundry for slightly over a year; he listed his duties as prepare clean linen for delivery, and said when needed, I work in the folding machines and ironer. Valenzuela also said: For two months I worked as volunteer in Asco Pharmacy. My duties are pricing, stocking, filling up cassettes. I pick up and deliver medicine from nursing units. 13 41 In explaining her decision to hire Valenzuela instead of Aka, Breakenridge cited Valenzuela's experience in pharmacy services, his knowledge of medical terminology, and his greater enthusiasm. We will begin by discussing the more objective aspects of the candidates' qualifications, and then turn to the question of their relative enthusiasm. 42 i. Pharmacy experience. Valenzuela's pharmacy experience was limited to two months of part-time volunteer work. It is unclear how much time Valenzuela volunteered, as he apparently continued to work full-time at the hospital. There is no evidence that the volunteer work occurred in a hospital, as the WHC position specification form required; Asco Pharmacy does not suggest a hospital. His work involved: (1) pricing medication, not a task listed in the Pharmacy Technician job description; (2) delivering medication to nursing stations, something Aka also did; and (3) stocking and filling up cassettes, which (assuming that cassettes are medicine containers) appear to correspond to a single item in the job description, receive, count and store pharmaceutical supplies. 43 Aka on the other hand had spent nineteen years picking up medicine and IV solutions from the central pharmacy for delivery at the OR. As Aka describes this work, it was not limited to picking up materials at a counter, but required him to move around within the pharmacy; pharmacy staff would show Aka the section of the pharmacy in which the item he wanted could be found, and he knew where to pick it up. As Aka pointed out at his deposition, this meant that he effectively already knew how to move materials within the pharmacy itself: 44 My experience was while working as an orderly, they used to send me to the pharmacy to pick up medication needed in O.R. When I go there, they show me the section [where] [t]hey put medication for O.R. I know where to pick it up.... So I can take that as experience in taking medication to any section of the unit if they need it.