Diversion Case Studies

Virginia Rite Aid Pharmacist Pleads Guilty to Filling Fraudulent Prescriptions in Pets' Names

Saltville, Virginia

A pharmacist at a Rite Aid in Saltville, Virginia filled approximately 47 controlled-substance prescriptions written in the names of five dogs belonging to his girlfriend, who operated a veterinary clinic, diverting the drugs for his own personal use. A DEA review of the state prescription monitoring program found the pattern, including seven prescriptions filled after one of the dogs had already been euthanized, and records showed many of the underlying prescriptions had been altered or were photocopies of earlier scripts. He pleaded guilty in federal court to obtaining drugs by fraud and using another person's DEA registration number to acquire a controlled substance.

ICU nurse at a Sioux Falls hospital accused of diverting fentanyl, lorazepam and hydromorphone after medication records review

Sioux Falls, SD

A registered nurse in a hospital intensive care unit was terminated in 2016 after a medication log review showed an atypically high rate of fentanyl removal and documentation errors, including unaccounted amounts of fentanyl, lorazepam (Ativan) and hydromorphone and 66 of 669 medications not scanned as given to a patient or wasted. The nurse denied wrongdoing and sued the hospital for wrongful discharge, breach of contract and defamation. The South Dakota Supreme Court upheld summary judgment for the hospital, finding no evidence it recklessly disregarded the truth when it reported the suspected drug diversion; the Board of Nursing investigated and ordered counseling, and other agencies reported to took no action.

West Hartford long-term care pharmacy settled after alprazolam loss and 22,000-dose discrepancy

A West Hartford pharmacy that serves long-term care and assisted living facilities entered into a civil settlement with the federal government, agreeing to pay a $150,000 penalty to resolve Controlled Substances Act allegations. The DEA began investigating in October 2018 after the pharmacy reported a loss of more than 6,000 dosage units of alprazolam 2mg, and an internal investigation indicated employee theft likely contributed. A subsequent DEA audit found a total discrepancy of more than 22,000 doses, which the government attributed in part to lax controls against diversion and inaccurate inventories. The settlement resolves allegations without a finding of liability.

CRNA Tampered with Fentanyl Vials at Charles City Hospital

Charles City, Iowa

From February to September 2018, Christopher Scott West used his nursing licenses to divert fentanyl and sufentanil intended for patients at the hospital's surgery and birthing centers, perforating vial seals and refilling them with saline. He was sentenced in 2020 to 34 months in federal prison.

VA Urgent Care Nurse Pleads Guilty to Stealing Hydromorphone

Pineville, Louisiana

Jolie King, a registered nurse at the VA Medical Center Urgent Care Clinic in Pineville, Louisiana, used her access to the clinic's narcotics supply cabinet to log in under randomly selected patients' names and withdraw hydromorphone vials without a physician's order, keeping the drug for personal use. In at least one instance she refilled two emptied vials with saline to avoid detection. She pleaded guilty in May 2020 to fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance.

Nurse accused of diverting fentanyl and hydromorphone at Danville hospital

Danville, VA

According to a U.S. Attorney's Office news release, a registered nurse was accused of diverting and tampering with vials of fentanyl and injectable hydromorphone intended for patients at Sovah Health-Danville beginning in January 2020. On May 19, 2020, the hospital discovered that the tops of several vials had been removed or tampered with, including 14 of 20 fentanyl vials whose tops popped off and one vial with a dry white film that appeared to be superglue. The nurse was already serving a three-year prison sentence for tampering with consumer products at the same hospital.

Pinellas Park pharmacy owner sentenced for filling oxycodone and hydromorphone prescriptions outside professional practice

A licensed pharmacist who owned a small pharmacy in Pinellas Park pleaded guilty on April 24, 2020, to unlawful distribution of oxycodone outside the scope of professional practice. According to court documents, the pharmacy filled Schedule II prescriptions for oxycodone and hydromorphone that were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose, accepted only cash at above-market per-pill prices, and ignored red flags such as opiate-naive patients traveling long distances. The pharmacist was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison with a $500,000 fine and a $766,819 forfeiture money judgment. A pharmacy technician employed there also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 months.

Pembina County Long-Term Care Nurse Charged With Stealing Resident Narcotics

Mountain, North Dakota

A licensed practical nurse at a long-term care facility in Pembina County, North Dakota was charged in April 2020 with theft of a prescription and reckless endangerment after a resident's medication card was found tampered with in November 2017 - pills that were supposed to be hydrocodone/acetaminophen had been broken open and resealed with tape, with acetaminophen substituted inside. She was fired at the time, and the case was later investigated by the Pembina County Sheriff's Office and North Dakota's newly created Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, whose director filed the charges as the unit's first prosecution. The charges remained pending at the time of reporting.

Missouri Nurse's Probation Extended Over Employer Medication Diversion

Missouri

The Missouri State Board of Nursing disciplined a registered nurse for unlawfully taking and consuming prescription medications and syringes from her employer over several months in 2019, placing her on three years' probation with mandatory abstinence and random drug/alcohol screening; the board later extended the probation after a positive alcohol test.

Wisconsin Dentist Pleads Guilty to Diverting Oxycodone Through Employee's Prescription

Mauston, Wisconsin

A dentist practicing in Mauston, Wisconsin wrote an oxycodone prescription in the name of his own dental hygienist and directed her to fill it and hand the pills over to him for his personal use, reimbursing her for the insurance co-pay. The hygienist later cooperated with a DEA investigation into the scheme. He pleaded guilty in federal court in Madison to obtaining oxycodone by misrepresentation, fraud, and deception.

Buffalo-Area Physician Diverted Controlled Substances Through Fraudulent Prescriptions to Associates

Buffalo, New York

A New York-licensed physician who had worked as a contracted doctor at Erie County Medical Center, Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, and the Monsignor Carr Institute pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute oxycodone, hydrocodone, and amphetamine. Over four years, he issued 179 fraudulent prescriptions in his own name and in the names of coworkers, friends, and drug-using associates who were never his patients, trading the prescriptions for cocaine, cash, and a share of the pills. The scheme was uncovered through a DEA investigation that identified the associates receiving prescriptions with no legitimate medical purpose. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, with sentencing scheduled for July 2020.

Anchorage nurse practitioner charged with manslaughter and drug distribution for opioid prescriptions without office visits

Anchorage, AK

Prosecutors alleged that an Anchorage nurse practitioner used her position to fraudulently give a patient and others vast quantities of prescription opioids, often prescribing without office visits, chart notes or explanation and sometimes taking refill requests via Facebook messages. The charging document alleged she prescribed diazepam, oxycodone, tramadol, hydrocodone and Ambien to the patient, and that another person sold the opioids to the patient. The patient died of an opioid overdose in 2015 with diazepam, oxycodone and alcohol in her system; the nurse practitioner was indicted on 18 felony counts including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, pleaded not guilty, and had her nursing license suspended.

Farmville pharmacy and pharmacist-in-charge ordered to pay $600,000 and permanently barred from dispensing controlled substances

A federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina entered a consent judgment requiring a Farmville pharmacy and its owner and pharmacist-in-charge to pay $600,000 in civil penalties and never again dispense opioids or other controlled substances. The government alleged that for years the defendants ignored well-known red flags of diversion, including filling high-dose opioid cocktails for long-distance patients, hundreds of opioid prescriptions for members of the same family, and prescriptions from a prescriber known to have been cut off by other pharmacies. Under the order, the pharmacist surrenders his pharmacy license and the pharmacy surrenders its DEA registration. The claims remain allegations only, with no judicial determination or admission of liability.

Rawlins physician charged with prescribing oxycodone and other controlled substances outside legitimate medical practice

Rawlins, WY

A former physician in Rawlins, Wyoming was charged in a 32-count federal indictment with dispensing oxycodone, alprazolam, tramadol, promethazine with codeine, amphetamine/dextroamphetamine and hydrocodone from 2014 to 2017 without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice, including to people and pregnant women under 21. He was scheduled to plead guilty in federal court in Cheyenne in late February 2020. The Wyoming Board of Medicine suspended his license in 2017 after finding he inappropriately prescribed controlled substances for other than legitimate purposes, prescribed them to known abusers, and offered drugs in exchange for sex, and he voluntarily relinquished his license in August 2018.

Iowa Nursing Home Nurse Sentenced for Stealing Patients' Pain Medication

Manchester, Iowa

Katie Louise Boll, a nurse at an Iowa nursing home, obtained hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone, codeine, and tramadol from at least fourteen patients in her care through misrepresentation and deception, and diluted a patient's liquid morphine with mouthwash until it was less than 2 percent of its labeled strength. She pleaded guilty in September 2019 to tampering with a consumer product and acquiring controlled substances by fraud, and was sentenced in January 2020 to four years in federal prison.

Casper pharmacy agreed to $1 million civil settlement over controlled substance dispensing allegations

A Casper, Wyoming pharmacy agreed in January 2020 to pay $1 million to resolve federal allegations of drug law violations, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Wyoming. The pharmacy was investigated in connection with the criminal prosecution of a physician who was convicted of illegally distributing prescription medication and sentenced in August 2019 to 25 years in prison. The civil settlement is not a finding of liability; it does not require an admission of wrongdoing by the pharmacy, and neither the pharmacy nor its employees were named in the criminal case.

Virginia Nurse License Suspended Over Roanoke-Area Nursing Home Opioid Diversion

Roanoke and Lynchburg, Virginia

A Virginia nurse who worked at Pheasant Ridge Nursing and Rehab Center in Roanoke and Central Healthcare in Lynchburg, among other area employers, had a nursing license suspended after a local TV investigation and Virginia Board of Nursing action found she diverted opioids for personal, unauthorized use across multiple healthcare employers.

Bucks County Dentist Pays $150,000 for Opioid Diversion and Recordkeeping Violations

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Dr. Pranathi V. Reddy, a dentist practicing in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, diverted a package of controlled substances for personal use in October 2018, resulting in an overdose that required hospital transport. A subsequent investigation by the DEA and the Pennsylvania Department of State found she had also failed for over a year to maintain required inventory, transfer, and storage records for the controlled substances used in her dental practice. Reddy settled the civil allegations with the U.S. Attorney's Office, agreeing to pay $150,000, to stop purchasing, prescribing, or dispensing Schedule II controlled substances for at least four years, and to submit to ongoing DEA reporting requirements. The settlement resolved allegations only, with no admission of liability.

Haverhill Nurse Sentenced for Tampering with Hospice Patient's Morphine

Amesbury, Massachusetts

Lauren Perrin, a licensed practical nurse at Maplewood Care and Rehabilitation Center in Amesbury, Massachusetts, took morphine sulfate from three bottles prescribed to a hospice patient for her own personal use and replaced the missing volume with cough syrup to avoid detection. The tampering diluted the medication to as little as 4-29% of its intended potency, depriving the dying patient of adequate pain relief in the weeks before her death. Perrin pleaded guilty in September 2019 to one count of tampering with a consumer product and was sentenced on December 18, 2019 to 54 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release.

Connecticut Pharmacist Admits Tampering with Home-Infusion Narcotics

Wolcott, Connecticut

Carl Mancini, a licensed pharmacist at a Connecticut company that compounded home and hospice intravenous infusions, used a syringe to withdraw hydromorphone and morphine from vials between January and June 2019, reinjecting saline so the vials would appear unopened. He used specialized crimping tools to reseal the tampered vials before returning them to the secure pharmacy area, and pleaded guilty in December 2019 to tampering with a consumer product.

Air-Evacuation Paramedic Tampered with Fentanyl and Ketamine Vials

Weatherford, Oklahoma

Colin Andrew Davis, a paramedic for an emergency air-evacuation company, removed fentanyl and ketamine from vials in November 2017 and replaced them with sterile saline, so patients undergoing emergency air evacuation risked receiving saline instead of pain medication or anesthesia. A narcotics log later showed medical staff had already administered the tampered fentanyl to three patients and the tampered ketamine to one before Davis admitted what he had done; a life-flight mission had to be canceled because he was too disoriented to work. He was sentenced in December 2019 to six months in federal prison.

Jacksonville Nurse Pleads Guilty to Tampering with Injectable Painkillers

Jacksonville, Florida

A nurse at Jacksonville-area hospitals repeatedly extracted hydromorphone (Dilaudid) from syringes in hospital inventory during 2017 and 2018, replaced it with saline, and returned the syringes for use on future patients. Hospital records showed she was obtaining drugs for patients and returning them supposedly unused at ten times the rate of her nursing peers, including at least one syringe drawn for a patient who was not hers and had not complained of pain. She pleaded guilty in December 2019 to tampering with a consumer product.

Registered nurse alleged to have diverted controlled substances from a rehabilitation facility in Burlington

Burlington, WI

A registered nurse was alleged to have diverted controlled substances from a rehabilitation facility in Burlington, Wisconsin, on or around December 3, 2019. The Wisconsin Board of Nursing accepted a stipulation and entered a final decision and order on September 10, 2020, accepting surrender of the nurse's license, barring reinstatement for at least one year, and imposing $632 in costs.

Chicago pharmacy technician sentenced to five years for stealing and selling hydrocodone

A former technician at a Chicago discount pharmacy pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal approximately 56,108 hydrocodone pills between October 2015 and December 2017 and sell them outside the pharmacy. According to the DEA release, the theft was concealed by falsifying the pharmacy's inventory to make the pills appear either not received from the distributor or dispensed to patients. The technician was sentenced to five years in federal prison; a co-defendant who pleaded guilty to the same charge received a year and a day.

Chicago Pharmacy Technician Sentenced for Stealing 56,000 Hydrocodone Pills

Chicago, Illinois

Elizabeth Cruz and co-defendant Jacqueline Green conspired to steal approximately 56,108 hydrocodone pills from Allcare Discount Pharmacy between October 2015 and August 2018, falsifying inventory records to conceal the theft. Cruz was sentenced in 2019 to five years in federal prison.