Incidentcase3

St. Vincent Hospital can’t keep track of its prescription painkillers so it must pay a $2 million fine to the government. The Star reports the hospital lost track of 623,843 tablets of hydrocodone from its clinic pharmacy in Indianapolis according to an FDA audit. U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks made the announcement on behalf of the government.

It turns out a former pharmacy employee was stealing the pills so her son could sell them on the street. Today’s Star story reads, in part:

During more than two years, a hospital pharmacy clerk stole 623,843 tablets of hydrocodone without being detected by the hospital, federal officials said. She gave the drugs to her adult son for sale on the street, they said.

A local drug task force investigating the son’s activities tracked the pills to the pharmacy at the hospital’s outpatient clinic for low-income and uninsured patients, federal officials said Thursday. . .

The pharmacy technician, Dianne Hauss, and her supervisor were fired, Smith said. Hauss and her son Mark Hauss were convicted of federal conspiracy to distribute a Schedule C controlled substance and sentenced in February.