Jessica Sharman, age 36, was sentenced to serve 44 months for stealing fentanyl meant for Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients at a Colorado hospital. According to the stipulated facts contained in the plea agreement, Sharman worked as a nurse for various employers until she began working in the ICU at Parker Adventist Hospital in January 2018. Soon after she started work at Parker Adventist, the defendant used an automated narcotic medication dispensing device known as a Pyxis machine to gain access to the fentanyl. On April 20, 2018, a routine audit report of access to and utilization of controlled substances from the Pyxis machine flagged Sharman’s access as “red” for high fentanyl use and waste for the month of March 2018. The audit for the month of February 2018 flagged Sharman’s access as “yellow,” also for high fentanyl usage. A review of the Pyxis access records showed a high number of “remove-cancel” transactions, indicating that the defendant had accessed controlled substances from a Pyxis machine but then “cancelled” the transaction, returning the drug to the locked machine. On April 25, 2018, after substantiating the tampering concerns flagged by the audit, Parker Adventist removed all fentanyl from the ICU. On April 26, 2018, Parker Adventist employees interviewed Sharman. Based in part on that interview, it was determined that the defendant was stealing fentanyl from the hospital. She allegedly withdrew the drug from fentanyl cassettes using a sterile syringe and saline flushes. She sometimes replaced the fentanyl she stole with saline, injecting the saline back into the fentanyl cassette and returning the cassette to the Pyxis machine. Following her interview, Sharman tested positive for the use of fentanyl. The hospital terminated Sharman’s employment on April 26, 2018.
