Cleveland Area Nurses Indicted for Stealing Pain Drugs

[dougd]

Ten nurses working at hospitals and health care facilities throughout Cuyahoga County were indicted Tuesday for stealing prescription drugs from their employers for personal use.

Many of the nurses helped themselves to high-potency painkillers, such as Vicodin and Demoral, from drug-dispensing machines at their respective facilities, prosecutors say. But in other cases, the nurses stole the pills that were on their way to patients in pain.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/....xml&coll=2

More black eyes for the medical community around here. The list of facilities these people worked at is pretty widespread. :roll:

[Kaisu]

The addiction rate of health care professionals is much higher than that of the general population. It is a big, untalked about problem. I think people become addicted because of the stress levels of the job combined with the easy access to meds. When pain patients start getting their meds diverted, it becomes unconscionable. We all need to guard against it. Never get lax with procedures for controlling narcs.

[itku2er]

We recently had that problem at the facality I work for alot of narcotics came up missing before they could be distroyed. Not only does it put a bad image on the facalities that are affected but it makes all the profession look bad. From the inside it also makes for a bad working enviroment. It breaks trust and makes enemies out of freinds real fast. Once trust is gone in any relationship whatever the case may be personal or professional its not easy to ever get back. It makes for a major inconvience for all because we all had to have a drug test which I will pee in your cup and give blood all day long if you want but its just the fact that everyone was assumed guilty, What ever happened to innocent till proven guilty?

[Eydawn]

But if you don't make EVERYONE pee in a cup, the lawyers can get you for profiling. "You only made the HISPANIC nurses pee in the cup, you're racist!" And so on...

That's why all employees are subject to testing when controlled meds wander off... it's a CYA for the employer, and unfortunately, if you have access to the meds there's always a potential that you could be the abuser, no matter how innocent you may seem. How many folks have been surprised to find out that coworkers are alcoholics or addicted to pain meds? You'd never have thought so-and-so would be like that...

See what I mean?

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[spenac]

I actually suggested that we start requiring a pee test at the beginning of and the end of each shift. Then if you came up positive you would be sent to lab for more extensive test to confirm. Yes expensive but it would make it real tough to be a user and work for us.

[firedoc5]

Years ago (about 20ish) I was naive enough to think it didn't happen that much. But had an ER nurse get busted. She was caught in the supply room as she still had the Demerol needle in her thigh. Come to find out she had been caught on the floor about five years before that. Then the hospital did an investigation, finding at least 18 nurses, pharmacist, CNA's, etc. to be in a sort of "ring". Took a long time for the hospital to recover from that insult.