Diversion Case Studies

Mississippi pharmacy technician pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining hydrocodone from pharmacy inventory

A pharmacy technician from Fayette pleaded guilty in federal court to fraudulently obtaining possession of a controlled substance. According to court documents and facts admitted in open court, the technician used the position at a Jefferson County pharmacy to acquire large numbers of prescription hydrocodone pills from the pharmacy's inventory. Sentencing was set for April 30, 2024, with a statutory maximum of four years in prison.

Valley Center Veterinary Clinic Pays $125,000 Over Controlled-Substance Mishandling

Valley Center, California

Best Veterinary Care, doing business as Valley Center Veterinary Clinic in San Diego County, California, paid $125,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act between 2020 and 2022. A DEA inventory audit found the clinic could not account for pills of the benzodiazepines alprazolam and diazepam and the opioid tramadol, and that it lacked effective controls to guard against theft and diversion of its controlled-substance stock. The clinic entered a Memorandum of Agreement with the DEA requiring additional safeguards for handling controlled substances going forward.

Hospice Nurse Stole Morphine from Dying Patient, Replaced with Cranberry Juice

Clifton, Texas

Ashley Kay Bidwell, a nurse at Clifton Lutheran Sunset Ministries' Sunset Home, stole morphine from a hospice patient and refilled the container with cranberry juice to conceal the theft. She was arrested in April 2022 and sentenced in January 2024 to four years in prison.

Default order for diversion of controlled substance from pharmacy

A default board order was entered for diversion of a controlled substance from a pharmacy. The sanction was revocation.

Hospital nurse anesthetist accused of diverting fentanyl and propofol intended for surgical patients

Las Vegas, NM

A nurse anesthetist was accused of diverting fentanyl and propofol meant for patients undergoing surgery, allegedly for personal use. The nurse denied the allegations and disputed the strength of the evidence. State investigators and the hospital reportedly found he took extreme measures to avoid drug testing after doctors, nurses, and pharmacists raised concerns, and the Board of Nursing negotiated a disciplinary settlement involving probation and monitored drug testing.

Michigan Physician Suspended Over Bloomfield Township Drug Diversion and Fraud Conviction

Bloomfield Township, Michigan

A Michigan physician in Bloomfield Township had a license suspended after the state licensing bureau's disciplinary action report cited a criminal conviction, drug diversion, insurance fraud, and lack of good moral character as the basis for action.

Hospital registered nurse's license revoked after fentanyl tampering and diversion

Janesville, WI

The Board of Nursing found that a registered nurse employed at a hospital in Janesville, Wisconsin, diverted fentanyl. On or around November 7 and 8, 2021, three tampered fentanyl vials were discovered in hospital automated dispensing cabinets, and analysis showed punctured stoppers and markedly reduced fentanyl concentrations in some vials. Records showed excessive fentanyl overrides, unaccounted fentanyl, and large recorded fentanyl waste; the nurse refused a drug screen and resigned when confronted. The nurse later pleaded guilty in federal court to tampering with a consumer product involving injectable fentanyl, and the Board revoked the nursing license.

Iowa Nurse Pleads Guilty to Diverting Controlled Substances from Life Care Center

Carroll, Iowa

A nurse employed at a life care center in Carroll, Iowa diverted controlled substances intended for residents and falsified related patient records to conceal the theft. The scheme, which took place between November and December 2020, was uncovered through a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigation into the facility's recordkeeping. She pleaded guilty in federal court in Sioux City in November 2023 to acquiring a controlled substance by fraud and to making false statements relating to health care matters, days before she was scheduled to stand trial. Investigators noted she had a prior burglary conviction from a separate, unrelated theft of controlled substances from a private home.

Norfolk Children's Hospital Pays Civil Penalty for Unregistered Warehouse Fentanyl Gap

Norfolk, Virginia

Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD) in Norfolk, Virginia, agreed to pay $68,400 to settle civil allegations that it violated Controlled Substances Act recordkeeping requirements. The government alleged that between March and December 2021, CHKD had packages of compounded prescription controlled substances — including a delivery of 200 one-milliliter fentanyl syringes — routed to its receiving warehouse, a location not registered with the DEA, and could not account for whether that fentanyl shipment ever reached its registered pharmacy. As part of the resolution, CHKD entered a separate agreement with the DEA Diversion Group to implement corrective measures. CHKD made no admission of liability.

Boston-Area ER Nurse Sentenced for 412 Unauthorized Opioid Withdrawals

Boston, Massachusetts

Andrea Falzano, an emergency department nurse at a Massachusetts hospital, used her access to a locked drug cabinet to withdraw morphine, fentanyl, and hydromorphone under the names of already-discharged patients. Over roughly five months beginning in May 2019, she made 412 unauthorized withdrawals tied to 299 discharged patients. Negative drug tests taken during the investigation showed she was not actually consuming the opioids she reported using, undercutting her claim to the hospital and the state nursing board that the theft was an isolated incident. She pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawfully obtaining controlled substances by fraud, deception, and subterfuge, and in November 2023 was sentenced to three months in prison and one year of supervised release.

Michigan Physician Surrenders License Over Big Rapids Drug Diversion and Fraud Conviction

Big Rapids, Michigan

A Michigan physician in Big Rapids voluntarily surrendered a license after the state licensing bureau's disciplinary action report cited a criminal conviction, drug diversion, failure to report, and insurance fraud as the basis for action.

Alabama Pharmacist Sentenced for Diverting Tens of Thousands of Oxycodone Pills from His Own Pharmacy

Gadsden, Alabama

The pharmacist in charge at Midtown Pharmacy in Gadsden, Alabama ordered at least 80,000 more oxycodone pills than the pharmacy ever dispensed to patients, diverting the surplus for resale to other drug distributors between 2015 and late 2021. He regularly took distributor stock bottles home, repackaged the pills into plastic bags, and sold them, earning an estimated $450,000 in unreported income that he failed to declare on his federal tax returns. He pleaded guilty in July 2023 to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and to filing false tax returns, and was sentenced in November 2023 to 54 months in prison, ordered to forfeit $110,620 in drug proceeds, and ordered to pay $124,547 in restitution to the IRS.

Tennessee Board of Nursing accepts surrender of registered nurse over Pulaski diversion

Pulaski, Tennessee

The Tennessee Board of Nursing disciplined a registered nurse in Pulaski over controlled-substance diversion, according to the November 2023 disciplinary action report. The order records that the licensee stole controlled substances from inventory, and the board accepted a voluntary surrender of the license. A board order is an administrative finding on the board's own investigation, not a criminal conviction, and the report states no quantity.

Tennessee Board of Nursing suspends registered nurse over Crossville diversion

Crossville, Tennessee

The Tennessee Board of Nursing disciplined a registered nurse in Crossville over controlled-substance diversion, according to the November 2023 disciplinary action report. The order records that the licensee diverted controlled substances from their employer, and the board suspended the license with terms. A board order is an administrative finding on the board's own investigation, not a criminal conviction, and the report states no quantity.

Tennessee Board of Nursing suspends registered nurse over Dyersburg diversion

The Tennessee Board of Nursing disciplined a registered nurse in Dyersburg over controlled-substance diversion, according to the November 2023 disciplinary action report. The order records that the licensee diverted controlled substances from their employer, and the board suspended the license with terms. A board order is an administrative finding on the board's own investigation, not a criminal conviction, and the report states no quantity.

Tennessee Board of Pharmacy places on probation pharmacy technician over Covington diversion

The Tennessee Board of Pharmacy disciplined a pharmacy technician in Covington over controlled-substance diversion, according to the November 2023 disciplinary action report. The order records that the licensee stole controlled substances from inventory, and the board placed the licensee on probation. A board order is an administrative finding on the board's own investigation, not a criminal conviction, and the report states no quantity.

Iowa Nurse Pleads Guilty to Diverting Fentanyl from Waterloo Hospital via False Wasting

Waterloo, Iowa

A registered nurse at a Waterloo, Iowa hospital diverted fentanyl, hydromorphone, and morphine for his own use over a two-month span in 2022 by falsely documenting that he had wasted full vials because patients had refused the drug. He took the job at the Waterloo hospital despite having already admitted to diverting narcotics at an affiliated Iowa City hospital in the same network and while under a monitoring agreement with the state nursing board's assistance program that barred him from working with narcotics. He pleaded guilty in October 2023 in federal court in Cedar Rapids to acquiring a controlled substance by fraud, deception, and subterfuge, and agreed to forfeit his nursing license. He had already surrendered his state nursing license to the Iowa Board of Nursing in December 2022.

Jacksonville Surgical Center Nurse Pleads Guilty to Tampering With Hydromorphone

Jacksonville, Florida

Katherine Jee Rankin, a registered nurse at a Jacksonville surgical center, was confronted after a supervisor discovered she had forged an anesthesia record and was being fired. While still in the building following her termination, a coworker and a surveillance camera caught her removing vials from the controlled-substances cabinet. Rankin admitted to other employees that she had an addiction and had been taking drugs from the facility, then turned over four vials of injectable hydromorphone she had emptied, refilled with saline, and resealed with glue so the center's drug count would balance. Lab testing confirmed physical and chemical tampering in all four vials, and a records review found falsified administration entries — including a digit altered from 1 to 2 to mask abnormal 200 mL doses. She pleaded guilty in October 2023 to tampering with a consumer product.

Registered nurse diverted and consumed Oxycodone on-shift in cardiac surgery unit

A registered nurse disclosed to the Board that between October and November 2023 they diverted and consumed Oxycodone while working on-shift in the cardiac surgery unit at PeaceHealth of Riverbend Medical Center. The nurse voluntarily surrendered their registered nurse license.

Agency nurse accused of diverting fentanyl at Watertown hospital; interim suspension

Watertown, WI

A registered nurse was the subject of an investigation into allegations that the nurse diverted and used fentanyl while working as an agency nurse assigned to a hospital in Watertown, Wisconsin. The Board of Nursing had not determined whether any statutes or rules were violated. The nurse agreed to an interim suspension of the privilege to practice as a registered nurse in Wisconsin pending final resolution of the disciplinary matter.

VA nurse pleaded guilty to stealing fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone

Aurora, CO

A nurse pleaded guilty to stealing fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver. The nurse diverted from two facilities, including the VA, and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

VA pharmacy supervisor suspected of stealing painkillers and testosterone over five years

Salt Lake City, UT

A pharmacy supervisor was suspected of stealing more than 24,000 painkillers and 25 vials of testosterone over five years. The incidents occurred at the George Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center and VA Salt Lake City Health Care System.

Traveling nurse fired from Little Rock hospital after positive fentanyl test; Arkansas board ordered cease and desist

A Texas-licensed traveling nurse practiced in Arkansas under the Interstate Nurse Licensure Compact and began a 13-week staffing-agency contract at a Little Rock hospital in October 2021. In January 2022 the nurse's drug test came back positive for fentanyl and the hospital ended the employment. The Arkansas State Board of Nursing sent a cease-and-desist letter for unprofessional conduct, and a national licensure database showed the nurse still barred from practicing in Arkansas as of October 2023.

Idaho Falls assisted living employee entered Alford plea to financial card charge after residents' hydrocodone was allegedly swapped for acetaminophen

An employee of an Idaho Falls assisted living center entered an Alford plea in state district court to an amended charge of criminal possession of a financial transaction card or number. The employee had originally been charged with grand theft, obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or forgery and misdemeanor abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult after the facility owner reported that 190 hydrocodone pills belonging to residents had been replaced with acetaminophen; those charges were dismissed under the plea agreement. An Alford plea does not admit the underlying allegations, and the employee denied the drug allegations in interviews with police.

Janesville Hospital Nurse Sentenced for Tampering With Fentanyl Vials

Janesville, Wisconsin

Dawn Drum, a registered nurse at SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital in Janesville, Wisconsin, was found to have an excessive pattern of fentanyl overrides and wastes compared to other staff when hospital management audited its automated medication-dispensing system in November 2021. Drum had been withdrawing fentanyl from vials, replacing the drug with saline, and resealing the stoppers with what appeared to be glue before returning the tampered vials to the dispensing cabinet for use on other patients. When confronted and asked to submit to a drug test, she refused and resigned instead. She pleaded guilty in May 2023 to product tampering and was sentenced in September 2023 to 15 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $30,000 fine.