Narcotics: Nurse Terminated For Discrepancies With Morphine.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
A pharmacy technician notified the unit nurse manager about a morphine discrepancy in the ob/gyn department. The nurse manager turned the matter over to the Code N Committee, a multidisciplinary task force that specifically investigates and analyzes cases of suspected narcotics diversion. The Committee was able to trace the discrepancy to one particular nurse on the ob/gyn unit who had more than once been able to override the dispensing system to obtain morphine for a patient who had no order for morphine and for whom there was no chart documentation of morphine having been given that day.
After the nurse was terminated she sued the hospital claiming she was a victim of age discrimination. The US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee dismissed her case. The hospital conceded it was not able to prove the nurse diverted the morphine and actually used it herself. However, according to the Court, substandard nursing practice involving narcotics poses a threat to patient health and safety. Giving narcotics to a patient who had no order or giving narcotics and not documenting it, if that actually happened, would still be grounds for termination.
Evans v. Hospital, 2016 WL 128525 (M.D. Tenn., January 12, 2016).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/drug-diversion-attempted.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/narcotics-diversion-defamation.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/drug-diversion-nurse.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/narcotics-diversion-discrimination-nurse.pdf
http://www.nursinglaw.com/narcotics-diversion-nurse-whistleblower.pdf