Healthcare Compliance Perspective:
The Compliance Officer will work with the Pharmacy, Pharmacy Consultant and the Director of Nursing to assemble all existing policies and procedures pertaining to storing, handling, destroying, and dispensing controlled substances and incorporate them into the facility’s policies and procedures.
An Illinois nurse is in jail and accused of burglary and theft for stealing Fentanyl patches from the bodies of elderly nursing home residents at two nursing homes-at least one resident reportedly had dementia, and another was terminally ill.
The nurse supposedly admitted in a jail call that he committed the thefts according to an Assistant State’s Attorney.
The defense attorney told the Judge, who was considering both the prosecution’s and the defense’s motions regarding bond for the nurse, that the defendant suffered from chronic pain and needs substance abuse treatment.
Police from the two cities where the nurse had worked in two nursing homes jointly investigated the theft of the missing opioid patches. The patches were reported missing when they disappeared from the storeroom of one facility. Later packages that had been cut open and the patches removed were found during shifts on which the accused nurse worked.
Video from a security camera that was installed in response to the thefts by one of the facilities showed the nurse on his day off entering a resident’s room. Later, it was noticed that three Fentanyl patches were missing from that terminally ill resident. A couple of days later, staff in the other nursing home reported that the nurse had entered a resident with dementia’s room and supposedly took a patch off that resident.
The prosecuting attorney told the judge that there are three investigations still pending that may add new theft charges against the accused nurse.
Expressing his concern for his two small children, the accused nurse asked the judge if he could be outfitted with an ankle monitor or “whatever you need me to do” to allow him to be released. He also indicated his willingness to get substance abuse treatment.
The Judge decided that the $50,000 bond was warranted, and he also stated that an outstanding warrant for a traffic violation in Missouri for the accused nurse prohibited his being released.
The case will be reviewed next month.
