A former emergency department nurse was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to tampering with consumer products, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana announced on April 12, 2023. According to court documents, from October 1, 2018, to February 18, 2020, the nurse repeatedly tampered with vials of injectable pain medications, including fentanyl, morphine, hydromorphone, and ketamine, while employed as a registered nurse in the emergency department at an Indiana hospital.
Using an automated medication dispensing machine, the nurse gained access to the medications without authorization and used them herself. To conceal her scheme, she refilled the vials of medicine with saline solution and super glued the lids back on. She used the saline solution on thirty to forty unknowing patients who had been admitted to the emergency department and were in need of pain relief. The investigation found that the nurse tampered with between two and seven vials of medicine during each shift that she worked.
Zachary A. Myers, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said, “Substance use disorders are serious diseases impacting everyone, including nurses, and medically approved treatment is critical to saving lives and careers. That’s why my office worked with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to secure a settlement agreement to ensure that Hoosier nurses can have access to medication assisted treatment while participating in the Indiana State Nursing Assistance Program. I encourage all providers struggling with substance abuse to seek help, because stealing medications from patients is a serious crime that carries serious consequences.”
The US Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations and the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated this case. The nurse was also ordered to be supervised by the US Probation Office for 3 years following her release from federal prison and to pay a $1,000 fine.
Compliance Perspective
Issue
Experts estimate that 10–15 percent of our nation’s population struggles with impairment from alcohol or drug dependency. Nurses, as part of this statistic, are distinct due to their ability to access drugs in the workplace. Because as many as one in ten nurses could be affected by a substance use disorder, it is critical that each facility implements a proactive diversion-prevention program. The consequences of failure to do this include a negative impact on residents’ quality of care, legal and ethical concerns, and potential for high scope and severity citations once a diversion problem is uncovered. Nurses who divert medications have developed a number of ways to conceal diversion. Efforts must identify the types of medications most likely to be taken, signs that diversion has taken place, and signs of impairment.
Discussion Points
- Review your policies and procedures on preventing, identifying, and responding to drug diversion. Update as needed.
- Train appropriate staff on actions that can be taken to prevent, identify, and respond to any suspicion of drug diversion. Provide education on the impact of drug diversion on residents as a form of abuse and neglect, staff responsibility to report concerns immediately, and the consequences of theft of controlled substances. Document that the trainings occurred, and place the signed document in each employee’s education file.
- Periodically audit to ensure that all controlled substances are accounted for each shift, and that proper documentation of controlled substances has occurred. Your consultant pharmacist can be included in this effort.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
