Jacqueline Brewster, 54, of Belfry, Kentucky, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information. According to court documents and statements made in court, Brewster admitted that she unlawfully accessed and used individually identifiable health information of patients at Raleigh General Hospital in Beckley to divert hydromorphone, an opioid, for her personal use. Brewster was employed as a travel nurse at Raleigh General Hospital from September 2021 until February 2022. To carry out her diversion scheme, Brewster accessed automated controlled substance dispensing machines at Raleigh General Hospital using her personal biometrics and began the process for checking out hydromorphone purportedly for a patient. Once the machine’s drawer opened, Brewster siphoned off a portion of hydromorphone from its vial, diluted the remaining hydromorphone with another substance so the vial would appear full, reattached the cap and returned the vial to the machine drawer. She subsequently canceled the transaction.
Brewster admitted that on one occasion she unlawfully accessed individually identifiable health information and obtained a hydromorphone by fraud occurred on or about February 1, 2022, at Raleigh General Hospital. Brewster further admitted that she carried out her scheme and diverted hydromorphone many times over the course of her employment at Raleigh General Hospital, and that she siphoned the hydromorphone not for any legitimate use.
