PROVIDENCE — As the battle for Senate minority leader heats up behind the scenes, one of the candidates — Sen. Leo Blais, R-Coventry — is facing a Department of Health disciplinary hearing next month on a dozen alleged violations by his pharmacy.

In an interview last week, Blais was adamant that he had done nothing wrong and said he hoped the hearing would be short-circuited by a court suit he was going to ask his lawyer to file against the department.

As of yesterday, however, the Dec. 18 hearing was still on.

While Blais has declined to talk in any detail about the Department of Health findings, the agenda says the hearing will center on allegations of “unprofessional conduct,” and more specifically, “on the question of whether the Department of Health, Health Services Regulation, Board of Pharmacy should revoke or suspend [Blais’] license to practice pharmacy in the State of Rhode Island.”

According to the hearing notice, these were some of the findings of a “routine inspection” of the Pawtuxet Valley Prescription Center, in Coventry, owned and operated by Blais, on Oct. 22, 2007:

Misbranded drugs, a failure to segregate “outdated, unusable or mislabeled” medication to make sure none of it was dispensed, questions about technician training and the finding that on the day of the inspection there was “no adequately trained pharmacist for compounding medications.”

The agenda also points to questions about the way the pharmacy kept its “inventory of controlled substances,” and states there were “no established expiration dates for bulk products/active ingredients with only ‘packaged on’ dates.”

The agenda says: “This conduct constitutes unprofessional conduct in the State of [Rhode Island] and as such is grounds for disciplinary action … You are hereby given the opportunity for a hearing on the question of whether your pharmacy license should be revoked, suspended or why you should be otherwise disciplined.”

Blais is challenging Sen. Dennis Algiere, R-Westerly, for a position that Algiere has held for more than a decade — Senate minority leader. With the Election Day defeat of Sen. June Gibbs, R-Middletown, there are only four Republicans left in the 38-member Senate and they are split two-to-two over who should be their leader in the next legislative session: Algiere or Blais.

The minority leader holds a seat on the Joint Committee on Legislature Services, which oversees hiring and purchasing for the year-round operations of the part-time General Assembly. The minority leader is an ex officio member of every Senate committee. He also has a say in which Republican senator sits on which Senate committee, and an actual role in appointments to an array of legislative study-commissions.

Blais is president and chief executive officer of Pawtuxet Valley Prescription & Surgical Center Inc. Last fall, his business filed for protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. According to court records, lawyers for one creditor, BankRI, said the pharmacy’s accounting and inventory figures were in disarray, leaving the bank with no confidence that Pawtuxet Valley officials had any idea “whether they’re making money.” But Blais said the pharmacy is currently operating under a reorganization plan approved by the Bankruptcy Court on Sept. 26. His financial recovery plan hinged, in part, on getting “several potentially lucrative contracts to provide infusion services to hospice programs and Veterans Home in Bristol,” according to a court filing. But the state controller has not yet responded to a request for an accounting of Blais’ state contracts, so it could not be determined yesterday if he landed the state-run Veterans Home contract.

Blais would not comment on the findings that precipitated next month’s Department of Health disciplinary hearing. But he said: “I don’t believe we have done anything wrong.”

This was not Blais’ only run-in with licensing authorities.

In 1999, the state Board of Pharmacy disciplined Blais, who until a year earlier had been one of the board’s own members, for violations of pharmacy regulations over a three-year period, including prescription errors.

The board placed Blais on probation for one year and ordered him to take a course on pharmacy law and ethics and submit a policy and procedure manual for his wholesale business. His probation was lifted in July 2000.

Last spring, while the more recent investigation that sparked the Dec. 18 hearing was still under way, Blais acknowledged that he initiated the introduction by a fellow senator of a bill to allow the Department of Health to expunge the disciplinary records of doctors, nurses and many other health-care professionals, including pharmacists like himself.

He said he took the initiative to help three former employees caught some years ago diverting drugs to their own use.

Asked if the bill might help his own situation, Blais said: “That was not even in my head.” But would he be eligible? “I have no idea. Nor do I care,” he said.

At the last minute, however, state Health Director David R. Gifford issued a letter slamming the Blais-instigated expungement bill, the medical society withdrew its support, and the sponsor, Sen. Charles Levesque, D-Portsmouth, requested the cancellation of a hearing on it.

kgregg@projo.com