In early 2004, several doses of controlled substances were discovered missing from Kino Hospital in Tucson. The discovery triggered an audit and an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration together with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona in Tucson, focused on how the hospital stored controlled substances and kept the records required of a DEA registrant.
Rather than proceeding to litigation, the hospital and the United States resolved the matter through a civil settlement reached on March 27, 2009. A civil settlement of this kind resolves the government's claims and does not constitute a finding that the hospital violated the law.
As part of the agreement, the hospital committed to fund $1,000,000 over the following five years, beginning in fiscal year 2009/2010, to establish a three-pronged drug abuse prevention initiative intended to benefit the Tucson-area community. The source, a professional-licensing law firm's commentary, presented the case as part of a broader trend of DEA enforcement directed at hospitals' controlled-substance record-keeping and storage practices rather than only at individual practitioners.