A personal-injury suit filed in Windham Superior Court alleged that a hospital nurse injected herself with drugs that should have been administered to a patient, then injected water from the used syringes into the patient to hide the diversion. The complaint also alleged the hospital and its administrator failed to check the nurse's background and to supervise and monitor her during her employment.
The opinion does not describe how the diversion first came to light. It does record that the Board of Nursing received an oral complaint, that an investigator prepared a preliminary and a fuller report, and that Board staff met with the nurse. The matter concluded with a stipulation of settlement in which the nurse admitted diverting drugs for her personal use while working at the hospital, and the Board took the matter up at a meeting in June 1989.
When the plaintiffs sought the Board's complete file, the Secretary of State produced the licensure application, the stipulation and the meeting minutes but moved to quash the rest, arguing that confidentiality was needed to protect complainants and investigative methods. The trial court ordered production, and the Secretary petitioned the Supreme Court for relief.
The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, leaving the production order in place. The decision is significant for diversion cases because it addressed whether a nursing board's investigative records can be shielded from civil litigants suing over patient harm linked to a nurse's drug use.