Incidentcase120

A nurse is charged with stealing patient pain medications while she worked at a local nursing home.

Jennifer L. Lewellyn was charged with Level 6 felony failure to make, keep or furnish records, Level 6 felony furnishing false or fraudulent information, Level 6 felony obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or deceit and a Class A misdemeanor theft.

Charges were filed against Lewellyn in September for eight incidents that allegedly occurred on March 21, 2018, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by an investigator in the Office of the Indiana Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

According to court records, Lewellyn was a licensed practical nurse at Bethany Pointe Health Campus when a resident told the staff she did not receive any pain medication. A check of medication records showed Lewellyn allegedly obtained six pills of oxycodone for the patient on the day in question.

Two days later a nurse did a pill count with Lewellyn present that showed the patient’s oxycodone was off by four pills. The count also revealed two other residents were also missing the same medication for a total of eight missing narcotic pills.

When confronted about the missing medication, Lewellyn allegedly could not provide an explanation, but pulled an oxycodone out of her pocket saying she got busy and had not given the patient her medication.

“Ms. Lewellyn simply left the facility and refused to submit to any drug screening as per policy,” according to the affidavit.

On June 25, Lewellyn was interviewed and denied ever stealing medications from Bethany Pointe. She told authorities any discrepancies were due to poor and inadequate charting, according to the affidavit. She said she did give medications to patients early without authorization from a physician.

“She admitted that it was wrong to give PRN pain medication early but did it regardless,” according to the court records.

An employee at Bethany Pointe said Lewellyn no longer works at the facility, but no one returned calls requesting information about Lewellyn’s employment.

Lewellyn’s nursing license remains active with no discipline information listed, according to the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency.