Opinion ID: 1998547
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: warrantless inspections of required records

Text: Also not presented by this appeal is the question of whether a pharmacist has any legitimate expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment or Pa. Const. Art. I, sec. 8 as to the content of the prescription file which he is required by law to maintain. Unquestionably, prescription files contain extremely private and potentially embarrassing information about the pharmacist's clients. For this reason, pharmacists are charged with a duty to exercise great care to preserve the legitimate privacy expectations of their clients regarding the information contained in the prescription file. See generally Turkington, Legal Protection for the Confidentiality of Health Care Information in Pennsylvania, 32 Vill.L. Rev. 259, 336-37 (1987); Fox, Medical and Prescription Records  Patient Access and Confidentiality, in Strauss, The Pharmacist and the Law, at 38-42 (1980). It does not follow, however, that as custodian of prescription records Slaton acquired vicariously a legitimate expectation of privacy in the records which may be asserted by Slaton against officers authorized by law to inspect such prescription records. See United States v. Acklen, supra, 690 F.2d at 74-75; United States v. Jamieson-McKames Pharmaceuticals, Inc., supra, 651 F.2d at 541-42. Rather, warrantless inspections of prescription files by appropriate law enforcement personnel may be authorized under the required records doctrine. See Shapiro v. United States, 335 U.S. 1, 68 S.Ct. 1375, 92 L.Ed. 1787 (1948); State Real Estate Com'n v. Roberts, 441 Pa. 159, 271 A.2d 246 (1970), cert. denied 402 U.S. 905, 91 S.Ct. 1367, 28 L.Ed.2d 645 (1971); Reiter v. Commonwealth Ins. Dept., 105 Pa. Cmwlth. 623, 629, 525 A.2d 446, 450 (1987) alloc. denied 517 Pa. 590, 534 A.2d 770 (1987). This justification for warrantless inspections stands on grounds separate and distinct from those discussed above for warrantless administrative inspections of pharmacies generally. Cf. Reiter v. Commonwealth, Dept. of Ins., supra (finding no statutory authorization for warrantless administrative inspections of insurance offices generally, while noting that the inspection would have been valid if it had been limited in scope to required records). This issue, too, was waived by the Commonwealth's failure to raise and argue it in the suppression court.