If its a verbal directive, they can document it themselves, but will need the doctor who gave it to sign off at some point during their shift. I have been beyond frustrated with the work environment and now I am being falsely accused of this. Specializes in Complex pediatrics turned LTC/subacute geriatrics. (NICK REID / Monitor staff) '"; I honestly cant believe after all this time this has come back to haunt me. The opioid addiction in America has lit my practice on fire, she says. The nurse held up the saline syringe and wasted the required amount, tricking her fellow nurse, and left the room. So I wasted the medication myself down the drain, and my job went with it. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 52 people in the United States die every day from overdosing on prescription painkillers. They do occasionally make arrests but they are rare. Similarly, it is important to rotate who delivers the drugs to the patient floors. Before he retired, he says, that number had dropped to one or two a year. Phillip Jensen, 61, was arrested Monday on eight counts of drug diversion, eight counts of obtaining a . 1625 Prince Street Some medications can also trigger false positives for an illicit drug. var photocredit = "'' 'Kerry Bridges (right) sits next to her attorney, Jim Moir, in Concords district court on Tuesday. In fact, up to 15 percent of healthcare workers are addicted to drugs or alcohol, compared to 8 percent of the general population, according to the Mayo Clinic. From physical pain and stress to a desire for financial gain, there are many reasons why pharmacists divert or misappropriate drugs. The diverting healthcare worker typically isnt one whos going to be selling or diverting his or her drugs on the street, but they are abusing the drugs while they are working., Leon worked hard on diversion prevention at HCMC after discovering a surprising pattern: almost all of the diverters he investigated wanted to be caught. Rather than return the med immediately, I hold onto it until they need it so I am prepared for the next time. 7. Unfortunately, there are different laws and statutes in every state that set up some sort of reporting requirements, he says. However, they typically do not carry guns, wear uniforms or flash their badge. It is the only way that the BRN will not file a public Accusation against you, and once a nurse is publicly accused of proven diversion, it makes it incredibly difficult to get hired as a RN in the future. Moving forward, you could just list dates of employment unless the application forces an answer, such as "Were you ever terminated?" I will spend as much time as you need listening to the details of your specific case, confidentially and without judgment. At this point, Leon knew exactly what was going on, and watched with increasing alarm as the nurse headed to a patients room in the orthopedic area of the hospital. Specializes in Pediatrics, Rehab, Trauma. The paper record was never found, but Bridges said it would not have been the first time that the hospital lost one of her paper records in translation, she said. Every specialty faces its own peculiar risks. Leon observed the nurse dispense a syringe of hydromorphone from the medicine cabinet, and, while a fellow nurse was signing off on the withdrawal, she placed the syringe in her pocket and pulled out an identical syringe, which Leon later learned contained saline. If you are diverting medication you need to get help. Has 14 years experience. So be smart and get a lawyer. This is something that is probably happening but were not finding it, he says. Often the reports they generate as to the errors are so complex and confusing that these errors and deceptions are not immediately noticeable. (Jeremy Blackman can be reached at 369-3319, jblackman@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JBlackmanCM.). A traveling nurse accused of diverting drugs from Concord Hospital took the stand Wednesday on the penultimate day of her criminal trial, emphatically contesting the claims and suggesting she is the victim of one giant misunderstanding. Protect yourself and do not give the employer or the future BRN investigation all they need to unequivocally prove diversion. 6. They pull out meds and "hold" them or document as given but take them themselves or take them home. Mitchell explains that all hospitals have different wasting proceduressome require nurses to waste the medication immediately, before they even leave the medication rooms, while others may have a 20-minute window. Prosecutors say doctors never signed off on the orders Bridges claims they gave her, and insist her behavior over the five weeks she worked in the hospitals emergency department was suspicious. We found out through the course of investigations that if someone resigns and was not sanctioned it may not be a reportable action, he says. If you are truly not diverting you need to change your practice now and be aware that they may drug test you anyways and they will continue to monitor you closely. The plain and honest truth is that I did not have several narcotic wastes witnessed by another nurse, as there was no one immediately in the area to assist me on several occasions. Fast forward to your recent interview in a different health care system. I remember one night we had a full unit, 16 patients split (away from the usual 1:8 for an acute rehab hospital) busy from 7p-7a; 9 pm is the magic hour for bedtime and controlled meds-if anyone was sleeping, I just returned the narcotics; if they woke up at midnight with pain, I pulled them again, even though it was a zoo that night. Change your ways!! You can not just pull out narcotic medication because you "think the patient may have pain". There is much more on these accusations in the blog, make sure to familiarize yourself with what these terms mean and what the outcome can be. Today a woman from the finnish customs called me saying its narcotics, she asked me if it was me who ordered the narcotics saying that that way i wont get into much trouble and it will be easier but if i deny ordering them i would have to go to the police station for a court hearing so they can get my statement and decide what to do. allnurses, LLC, 175 Pearl St Ste 355, Brooklyn NY 11201 Allegations of diversion always stem from charting issues, always. Please Note: The statements and information provided on this website are for informational purposes only. Unfortunately, experts acknowledge that most diverters dont get caught until they have been diverting for so long they start to get sloppy. I am a registered nurse accused of narcotic diversion even after dividing a negative drug screen. I was wondering if anyone has any experience of being falsely accused of med diversion due to giving meds 1-2 hours after pulling them out of the pyxis. These are: hire a defense attorney, Dont start dialing that 1800 number just yet we can help! The Royals' New Family Photo Is Causing Major Drama Right Now. For more on investigations, click here. you diverted 2.) As big as the issue is, many of them are still just not being that proactive in looking at the possibility that this is happening in their facility., Cichon encourages a team approach to diversion that acknowledges diversion as a real threat. I am on a floor where there aren't any CNAs at times, nor a resource RN and sometimes no unit clerk and every minute counts. Choosing a specialty can be a daunting task and we made it easier. Reported incidents of diversion at about 1,200 VA facilities jumped from 272 in 2009 to 2,926 in 2015, the data revealed, and the VA inspector general has opened more than 100 criminal investigations since last October. Has 7 years experience. Even though the accusations may be unfair and untrue, the situation is real. 305.712.7177. Since 1997, allnurses is trusted by nurses around the globe. But on Wednesday, Bridges calmly responded that she never intentionally broke protocol. She might have left them in the patients' med drawers. There are only so many DEA diversion investigators, so they have to prioritize what they get involved with, Murphy says. House Beautiful. Prescription drug use by medical personnel and drug diversion by health care providers has risen to epidemic proportions and become a significant public health issue. Susan Hayes has been a private detective for healthcare facilities for more than a decade and says the opioid epidemic has magnified the drug diversion problem in recent years. In a few cases, we have even had a nurse accused of diverting because they GAVE more medication than other nurses never mind that they were working tons of overtime, so of course they were giving more! Well gee, did you ever notice that John drives a Mercedes and has two boats and a house on Long Island? Would it be worth emailing HR to plead my case? Doctor's Patient Dies of Opioid Overdoses, Spiga & Associates | 655 N. Central Ave. Ste. You have people that are already in very stressful situations, and now you give them access to drugs. Indirect questions help you as they mean the accuser has to reflect on their own behavior. No matter what number you come to, its probably bigger in reality.. and three counts of false statements related to health care matters. Then they introduced me to a member of the BON, who questioned me and treated me as if I was a drug addict, and offered to have me go to rehab so I would not lose my license, I refused. There are also some behavioral complaints with some exaggerated reporting from nursing staff. Its no secret that opioid addiction has reached epidemic levels in the United States. You have to keep those investigative skills up, but you have to spend equal amount of time on prevention and awareness.. There are medical boards, nursing boards, pharmacy boards, and not every worker even falls under some sort of licensing board for that state. . He kept a trained eye on one registered nurse who was suspected of stealing hydromorphone, an opioid pain medication, for her personal use. Unless you haven't been completely forthcoming, then there's something shady going on. I think the combination is almost deadly.. Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac. Wholesalers can even stop the flow of medication to pharmacies if they believe diversion is occurringwhich can be disastrous to a trauma center, Hayes notes. Puts patients at risk for healthcare-associated infections. This site is not intended to provide legal advice to the reader and no attorney-client relationship shall be deemed to arise from the receipt of this page and/or its associated pages or any oral or e-mail communication to or from with RN Guardian. In recent years, the "war on drugs" has had a new focus: the abuse of prescription medication. Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical. It is a charge that should be taken very seriously. HCMC has cameras set up in the medication room to monitor controlled substances, and Leon watched as the nurse began gathering prescribed medication for a patient in the emergency department. Controlled Substances Act of 1971, which classifies substances based on how they are used and the potential for abuse. South African nurse wants to work in Canada. If somebody wants to steal or becomes addicted, they are going to find a way to do it, and sooner or later they are going to get caught, but then theres a problem because the hospital has to work backwards to determine how much was stolen and reconcile all that, he says. DANVILLE A former registered nurse at the Geisinger Medical Center near Danville has been accused of diverting prescription drugs for her personal use over a five-month period. HPRP attempted to force the nurse into treatment despite the fact that she did not need it. 1-612-816-8773. allnurses Copyright allnurses.com LLC. While filing a complaint with the BRN is not mandated by law . Later . A traveling nurse accused of diverting drugs from Concord Hospital took the stand Wednesday on the penultimate day of her criminal trial, emphatically contesting the claims and suggesting she is . So, at 11 p.m. on a Friday, Leon settled in for a night of observation at the Level I trauma center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. HR continues to harras me and even mention that my director could have given me a heads up 2 hours before I was to report in for a meeting in which I knew nothing about. chris camozzi musician. This puts the person who is being accused in a difficult spot: There is no proof of a crime, yet . A person cando five thingsif he/she is falsely accused of a crime. I have known a nurse who would fill the medication vial with normal saline after taking out the narcotics and injected the normal saline while injecting the drug im into herself. She has no criminal record. More often than not the nurses would say, I wanted somebody to stop me. So I moved on and applied for another ER position in a nearby town (in the same health system as the one in my town) and again received an email saying that they were not interested (I did not even get an interview). You want to try to find them before that.. Cardinal Health, Walgreens supplier, was charged $34 million for failing to report suspicious sales of painkillers. We get a glowing testimonial from your new supervisor. 14. notice of intent to sell property; what kind of gun will kill a grizzly bear Hospitals routinely selectively enforce the rule against high paid or "difficult" nurses they want to get rid of. During both hearings, we were able to successfully cross-examine HPRP representatives, the clients evaluators, and fact witnesses, as well as provide favorable character testimony on behalf of our client. Drug diversion by nurses can begin with a nurse misusing drugs as a pain killer followed by repeated, follow-up use as drug tolerance increases and ultimately, as an addicted user. The employees appreciated the cameras because it showed they werent diverting medication, they just made a mistake.. Explore. The jury's award came after the criminal charges were dropped seven months after being filed and a letter was sent by the State Attorney's office stat-ing she had been cleared of suspicion. So what should you do if faced with an accusations concerning your charting errors and or alleged diversion of narcotics or other drugs? Those are the highly frustrating results of a new study from researchers at Harvard.. Drug/alcohol abuse; Gross negligence/incompetence, resulting in patient endangerment; Patient abuse and neglect; Sexual, violent, or abusive offenses; . Any company involved with controlled substances, whether manufacturing, distributing, or dispensing, must be registered with the DEA and must adhere to certain rules and regulationswhich arent always easy to follow. When prescription medicines are obtained or used illegally, it is called drug diversion. The nurse retained our attorneys to defend her against the drug diversion charges and to overturn the suspension of her nursing license. Our mission is to Empower, Unite, and Advance every nurse, student, and educator. To restock the shelves, pharmacy technicians compile lists of what medications they are low on to send to the wholesalers at the end of each day. I was heartbroken as I really wanted this position! There are different drugs today, of course, than there were 20 years ago.. If youre both ordering and putting away drugs, thats a bad thing because you can order six bottles when you only need five and keep one for yourself, Hayes notes. 3. The patient was still screaming in pain and the doctor was frantically asking the nurse, Are you sure you got the right dosage? Hospital staff called the pattern unusual. Due to the stigma of discovering diverters on staff, many hospitals just arent preparing themselves to address the problem proactively, Cichon explains. Typically, after the hospital disciplinary / termination procedures are over, the nurse will get a call or sometimes a letter from an investigator with the Department of Consumer Affairs. One pharmacy in Florida went from ordering 95,800 pills in 2009 to 2.2 million pills in 2011, according to the DEA. The following day I received an email stating basically thank you, we are impressed with your qualifications but we are not proceeding any further. Agreedand the DEA won't care how busy your floor is. False accusations and gossip can destroy lives, even if the accused is innocent. In another, Bridges said that her patient, a man with cancer, had been taking high doses of morphine at home and was at risk of going through withdrawals while he waited for hours for a bed in the main part of the hospital. You could lose it, you could accidentally take it home, someone could see you pocket it and report it, etc, etc. I hired a lawyer, and went through all the steps to have this . I needed help, didnt know how to ask for it, and I was hoping somebody would stop me. Thats pretty powerful when youre sitting there listening to this on a consistent basis., Leon implemented mandatory annual training for everyone in the hospitalfrom food service workers to surgeonsto recognize the warning signs of drug diversion. Bridges was accused of misconduct in 2014 by Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, but it was never raised Wednesday in court. Karen MD started YouTube channel to bash nurses and NP. }. I was falsely accused of drug diversion. Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant. Designed to give you the foundational knowledge and skills you need to become a more dynamic security professional, including EP specific threat and risk assessment, protective intelligence, advance planning and more. They just made a mistake, than there were 20 years ago one pharmacy in Florida went from 95,800... And confusing that these errors and deceptions are not immediately noticeable, jblackman @ cmonitor.com or on Twitter JBlackmanCM...: there is no proof of a crime people that are already in very stressful situations, and every. Meds and `` hold '' them or document as given but take them home environment now!, tricking her fellow nurse, falsely accused of diverting drugs, and I was heartbroken as I really wanted this position prevention! 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