What Happened
A registered nurse employed at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin was found by the Board of Nursing to have diverted morphine and fentanyl from hospital stock or waste for personal use over four years until June 28, 2004, and to have consumed them at work without a prescription or other authority.
The Board found this placed patients at risk but did not find actual harm. The nurse was criminally charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with unlawfully obtaining a controlled substance. The license was suspended for six months, then indefinitely, with treatment and monitoring conditions and a restriction on access to controlled substances.
What the Record Shows
License suspended for six months, then indefinitely, with conditions including treatment, monitoring, and restricted access to controlled substances; partial costs of $200.
Why It Matters for Diversion Programs
This entry comes from a primary source rather than a federal enforcement release, and it is recorded as reported: The Board found that the nurse diverted morphine and fentanyl from hospital stock or waste for personal use over four years until June 28, 2004, and consumed the substances at work without a prescription or other authority. The nurse was also criminally charged with unlawfully obtaining a controlled substance.. Board and news records are a lagging indicator - by the time a licensing authority or a reporter learns of a diversion, the diversion was normally detected internally first, which makes each entry a signal that inventory reconciliation, waste observation or dispensing oversight failed earlier.