A travel nurse from eastern Kentucky was working at Raleigh General Hospital in Beckley, West Virginia, during late 2021 and early 2022. According to federal prosecutors, over a span of several months the nurse accessed patient information in order to divert hydromorphone, a Schedule II opioid, for personal use.
Prosecutors described a method that relied on the hospital's automated dispensing cabinets. The nurse removed medication, siphoned off portions of the drug and diluted the remaining doses so that the vials appeared full. Transactions were then voided in the cabinet system to cover the withdrawals. This meant that patients may have received diluted doses while records suggested nothing was amiss.
The conduct led to federal charges in the Southern District of West Virginia. The nurse was convicted of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and of wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information, reflecting the misuse of patient records to carry out the scheme. In July 2025 the court imposed a sentence of five years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.
On the licensing side, the West Virginia Board of Registered Nurses indefinitely suspended the nurse's ability to practice in the state. The case illustrates the exposure hospitals face with contract staff who have cabinet access, and the role that transaction-void patterns and dose-integrity checks play in surfacing diversion.