Incidentcase196

Donna Helm, an LPN from New Castle, was terminated from a nursing home after declining to be interviewed about missing narcotics, after which she was terminated by another nursing home where she allegedly diverted dozens of opioid tablets from patients.

Helm’s employment at Stonebrooke Rehabilitation Center (formerly known as American Senior Communities) in New Castle was terminated after an investigation of missing narcotics. She was asked to take a drug screen, the results of which were negative. After she declined to come in for an interview with the facility’s executive director, she was fired for “insubordination.”

Helm was working around the same time as a nurse at Hickory Creek nursing home in New Castle. She was suspended during an investigation of missing medication and asked to submit to a drug screen. Helm never returned to work and never provided a drug screen. She was terminated for missing work without communicating and for failing to cooperate in the diversion investigation.

The investigation found 168 tablets of pain killers belonging to three patients were missing, along with narcotic count sheets associated with the missing medication. All other nurses with access to the medication tested negative for controlled substances.