Incident 40129
Incident 40129
Nurse who admitted to stealing narcotics has firing overturned in arbitration case.
A nurse who stole opioid painkillers and other drugs from a Toronto hospital for seven years, then risked harming patients by doctoring their records in the cover-up, has been ordered rehired by the facility.
The arbitration ruling released in 2016 was one of the most dramatic in a string of cases in Canada involving health-care workers caught pilfering narcotics — but with starkly different outcomes for the employees.
In the Toronto case decided last week, arbitrator Norm Jesin concluded the serial thefts were motivated by addiction, a disability he said gives the nurse human-rights protection.
Jesin found the Toronto nurse regularly stole the opioid painkiller hydromorphone – also known as Dilaudid – as well as sedatives like lorazepam from Sunnybrook’s Holland orthopedic centre in 2005-13. She often hid the thefts by indicating on charts that the drugs had been administered to patients recovering from orthopedic surgery.
The nurse denied she ever deprived patients of the painkillers they needed, but admitted there was no way of proving that.
She blamed her abuse problems on longstanding anxiety, a 2005 diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and a finger injury in 2011 for which she was prescribed the opioid Percocet.
Sunnybrook dismissed her, but the union filed a grievance.
Where the Diversion Occurred:
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
43 Wellesley St E, Toronto, ON M4Y 1H1, Canada
Type of Healthcare Facility:
Hospital
Has the incident been reported?
e.g. to local law enforcement, county board of health, state licensure board, and/or federal DEA or FDA authorities?
Yes
To whom has the incident been reported?
Local Law Enforcement, , and/or federal DEA or FDA authorities?
