Former Iowa Nursing Home Nurse Sentenced for Drug Theft
A former nurse in an Iowa nursing home was recently sentenced to four years in prison as part of a plea agreement reached involving her alleged tampering with a consumer product resulting in injury to a resident and charges of acquiring oxycodone by deception. Along with her prison term, she will be on supervised release for four years.
The defendant worked in the nursing home from September through December 2018, and authorities alleged that she had accessed hydrocodone medication prescribed for two residents pain relief at least 50 times. She would replace the hydrocodone with Tylenol. Just prior to her actions being discovered, she allegedly took morphine prescribed for a hospice resident and diluted the remaining morphine with mouthwash. This placed the resident, who was suffering from a terminal illness, at risk for unrelieved pain.
Other thefts included opening medication packets to steal oxycodone, morphine, tramadol, and codeine. She replaced those medications with Tylenol, Lasix, and other substances.
The theft led to the submission of $595 in false claims to Medicare and Medicaid.
Compliance Perspective
Failing to prevent staff from tampering with controlled medications prescribed for residents and misappropriating them for their own illegal purposes may be considered abuse, neglect, misappropriation, and exploitation, and deemed provision of substandard quality of care, in violation of state and federal regulations.
Discussion Points:
- Review policies and procedures regarding the reconciliation protocols for ensuring that controlled medications intended for residents cannot be misappropriated.
- Train staff on abuse, neglect, misappropriation, and exploitation of controlled medications, and how to prevent diversion and discover if controlled medications have been tampered with or are unaccounted for.
- Periodically audit medication documentation and observe the process of medication reconciliation to determine if protocols for ensuring the prevention of misappropriation of controlled medications are being followed.
