Compliance Perspective – Missing Narcotics:
The Compliance Officer will review the facility’s policy and procedures regarding drug diversion with the Compliance Committee and confer with the DON to determine if the reconciling processes of accounting for drugs administered to residents and the securing of controlled substances are in place. The pharmacy providing the controlled substances will be contacted and involved in the investigation. Staff will be educated on the process for maintaining control over medications and keeping them securely stored. The Compliance Officer will ensure that an audit is developed and implemented to regularly check that the drugs prescribed are being dispensed to the residents with particular attention being paid to drugs dispensed on a PRN basis.
vials of powerful narcotics were drained with a syringe and replaced with water in the intensive care unit of a New York hospital. When the missing drugs were discovered on July 23, that discovery set off a legal battle between the hospital and the hospital’s employees.
Hospital officials ordered all staff members having access to the vials of fentanyl, phenobarbital, morphine and other drugs kept in the ICU’s secure storage to undergo drug testing.
Citing employees’ rights, the nurses’ union representatives rejected the order for drug testing. Although 25 employees having access to the storage unit had urine tests, the nurses’ union filed suit to prevent those test results from being released. The union claims that persons from the county’s district attorney’s office and the Federal Drug Administration advised the hospital’s acting CEO and medical director to “disregard the union’s demands and instead test all of the employees who had access to the drugs,” The DA’s office denies any knowledge that such a directive was given to the hospital. The union insists that a “collective bargaining agreement prevented administrators from randomly drug testing workers” without first determining probable cause indicating an employee was involved in substance use.
A justice of the state Supreme Court has approved a compromise in the case. The results of the drug test were to be given to the judge along with a list of the substances that were taken. This would protect employee privacy by not releasing the full drug test results to the hospital.
The hospital told a news reporter that no patient was endangered due to being given water instead of the drugs. The hospital also issued a statement outlining its plan to continue working with authorities to resolve the incident.
