January 2022
The following are several drug diversion news stories that have captured our industry’s attention.
Former registered nurse faces 15 years in prison for diverting drugs
Sarah Jean Moses pleaded guilty to stealing prescription opioids while serving as a registered nurse at a Cedar Rapids hospital. Moses accessed the drugs from the hospital’s automatic dispensing cabinet (ADC) by using her fingerprint and/or pass code. She punctured vials of hydromorphone with needles to withdraw the drugs then refilled the vials with saline. Surveillance camera footage showed Moses entering the room where the ADCs were kept.
Federal officials support President Biden’s plan to regulate all fentanyl-related substances
President Biden has proposed that all fentanyl-related substances be permanently categorized as Schedule I drug, which are defined as having no medical use. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicated that permanently placing this substance in Schedule 1 category would make it easier for them to seize the drugs when they enter the country. At the same time, the proposal will make it easier for scientists to obtain the substance for research purposes.
Former nurse who admitted to stealing opioids will only get probation
Despite the risk of contaminating controlled substances given to patients, a district court judge reduced the sentence of a former nurse to only two years of probation, house arrest, and mandatory drug counseling. Judge Mark Mastroianni felt that Daniel Herlocker had done significant good before his addiction for the charitable work he’s been doing to build homes for the poor in Africa. Herlocker was caught extracting morphine and Diludid from an ADC.
Winston-Salem nurse convicted of taking opioid painkiller from vials
Thirty-two year old nurse Emilee Poteat pleaded guilty to charges of tampering with medical supplies at a North Carolina hospital. Poteat was accused of opening vials of hydromorphone for personal use and replacing the opioid with saline solution. According to the prosecutors, she knew the tampered drugs would then be administered to patients, thinking it was a painkiller. She faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison if found guilty.
Doctors urge new approach as opioid scripts decrease but fatal overdoses increase
The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) are calling for a new approach to fighting the opioid crisis. While restricting opioid prescribing has decreased, the number of fatal overdoses actually increased by 300%. According to the ASA, restricting prescriptions has not succeeded. Former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD introduced a new concept — a prescription opioid ecosystem — to combat the crisis.
Iowa nurse found unconscious while on duty in Florida hospital surrenders license
Jennifer Baeley agreed to have her nursing license revoked after being found unconscious with a suspected drug overdose while working at an Orlando hospital. Bailey was fired from two separate hospitals after drug audits indicated that she pulled narcotics from a medication cart before they were dispensed to patients. She also established a pattern of voiding more than two dozen transactions involving Benadryl.
Tampering with painkillers nets former nurse three-year prison sentence
A federal jury convicted Nathan Pehrson of stealing hydromorphone while employed as a nurse at Intermountain Healthcare facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. Pehrson would inject the pre-loaded syringes for personal use then replace the drugs with saline. Patients with moderate to severe pain would then receive saline solution instead of the painkillers. Pehrson was also convicted of making false statements to the FDA, rendering an additional three-year term of supervised release.
Nurse will serve up to 10 years for tampering with a patient’s medication
A former ICU nurse at a Florida hospital, was charged with diverting drugs from patients. An investigation concluded that Jerome Clampitt used a syringe to take fentanyl from patients for his own personal use. When interviewed, he admitted that he stole the substance “to help him sleep.” Waste assay showed that he diluted the fentanyl with saline. Clampitt is facing up to 10 years in federal prison.
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Why incorporating artificial intelligence is crucial to detecting drug diversion today
Ajay Patel
Not all fields of medicine are upgrading technology at breakneck speed. Take drug diversion prevention as an example. Currently, many hospitals follow a simplified approach to tracking and monitoring potential drug diversion events. Depending on the facility, that approach could be a simple spreadsheet, a check list, or an inventory report. However, utilizing these tools can be time consuming, complicated, and requires more than one staff member to effectively execute.
Another challenge with these current models is the inability to pull and efficiently analyze all exponentially growing data from various sources, such as information from EHRs, EMRs, and waste assays.
“It is humanly impossible to synthesize all the data that a hospital can generate — even in a small facility,” said Ajay Patel, Chief Strategy & Information Executive for Kaleitics, a company focused on building intelligent solutions for enterprise. “There are simply not enough people or time to go over all the data points, compare and triangulate them to pinpoint a diverter. So, the only way to execute a drug diversion program today is by sampling and hoping to find the culprit. Hope becomes the strategy, rather than identifying patterns of behavior using Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
While nine in 10 hospitals now report using some form of AI in their facility according to Health IT Analytics, very few have yet to integrate it in drug diversion prevention.
Patel adds that AI can provide an eagle eye view over transactions in hospitals, helping the staff focus on patient care instead of sifting through mounds of data to find potential diverters. At the same time, he says, AI can also deliver value by pinpointing where revenue loss occurs, by identifying the drugs that were not administered, but diverted, which cannot be submitted for reimbursement.
Importantly, the use of AI and automation strategies can improve workflow efficiencies in all practice areas, minimizing errors and improving patient safety.
“I believe that the use of AI will be one of the key driving forces in continuously improving healthcare to be more effective, efficient, and sustainable in terms of patient safety and finances,” he added.
Patel also sees AI as an opportunity to help solve a critical issue — drug addiction in the healthcare setting. For example, AI can identify behavioral patterns that can point out healthcare workers who may be taking controlled substances meant for patients. Drug diversion team members can deploy resources and intervene before a potential overdose occurs by stopping the diversion and distribution.
Facilities that invest in next-generation products that incorporate AI will see significant improvement in practice management and in the monitoring drug diversion. Streamlining processes and improving efficiencies can only lead to one outcome — a positive return on investment.
“AI can be the guiding force providing you facts for data driven decisions,” said Patel. “With the right insights, you can put your resources in the right places. This is something that poring over spreadsheets simply cannot do.”
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