Mark Croft, 48, a former nurse, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to tampering with opioids intended for emergency department patients at a hospital where he worked and then attempting to conceal his crime by replacing the diverted narcotics with saline. While working at a Massachusetts hospital in January 2016, Croft administered hydromorphone and meperidine — both Schedule II controlled substances — to emergency department patients in need of pain relief. Between Jan. 5 and Jan. 14, 2016, Croft tampered with carpujects — syringe devices used to administer injectable fluid medication — containing hydromorphone and meperidine by accessing the automated dispensing machine (ADM) in the hospital’s emergency department. Specifically, Croft used his credentials to access the ADM and removed carpujects containing hydromorphone and meperidine. He then used syringes to puncture the carpujects and removed portions of the hdyromprohone and meperidine for his own use. In some instances, Croft replaced the medication he removed with saline in an attempt to conceal his conduct. To avoid detection, Croft later put the carpujects with the diluted medication back in the ADM where they remained available for nurses to unwittingly use on patients. Croft also used his credentials to enter a “return to stock” transactions in the ADM, making it falsely appear that no medications had been removed from the carpuject.
