Resources

DEA's plain-language outline of the Controlled Substances Act for pharmacies. Start here for recordkeeping, inventory and theft or loss questions.

Also: DEA pharmacy news

Registration, online theft and loss reporting, records of substances destroyed, and regulatory updates.

The physical security rules for storing controlled substances and the theft and loss reporting duty (§1301.76).

What inventories and dispensing records a registrant must keep, and for how long.

The CMS rule that hospitals keep current, accurate records of scheduled drugs and report abuses and losses to the pharmacy director and the CEO.

Federal drug testing guidelines, the certified laboratory list and an employee assistance program toolkit. Written for federal workplaces; the testing and EAP material carries over to a fitness-for-duty policy.

Also: SAMHSA National Helpline

How diversion harms patients, including infection outbreaks from tampered injectables, and the prevention and response steps CDC recommends.

The current federal opioid prescribing recommendations. Context for outpatient and community pharmacy programs.

Find your local DEA Diversion field office by ZIP code. This is the office that gets written notice of a theft or significant loss.

Every state prescription monitoring program: director, address, phone, and the state's PDMP statutes.

Contact details for each U.S. board of nursing, for licensure reports after a confirmed nurse diversion.

Check a nurse's license status and public discipline across participating state boards, at hire and during an investigation.

The standard reference for hospital and health-system diversion programs: structure, surveillance, investigation and reporting.

ISMP's 2023 two-part alert: warning signs in clinicians, records and inventory, then tactics to reduce diversion. PSNet links free PDFs of both parts.

The association for healthcare diversion professionals: webinars, the Fundamentals of Drug Diversion course, and an annual conference.

Training and networking for investigators from law enforcement, regulators and healthcare.

Program components, each with assessment questions, organized under the SAFE framework. Works as a gap list for a committee.

How diversion happens at each step from procurement to waste, behavioral warning signs, and a checklist of program components such as an oversight committee and an anonymous reporting line.

Benchmarks from 66 hospital pharmacies in 31 states: 71.2% use diversion software and have a dedicated surveillance team; cameras are common but often not monitored.

How one children's hospital linked pharmacy and anesthesia records in a dashboard. The design is reusable for any anesthesia reconciliation report.