Incidentcase54

Based on “numerous incidents of diversion,” Reid was cited by the Drug Enforcement Administration for “failure to provide effective controls and procedures to guard against theft and diversion of controlled substances … ”

On the day that Reid finally caught up with nurse Michelle Hibbard, in January of 2017, she was a walking pharmacy.

Asked to empty the pockets of her scrubs, Hibbard produced seven vials containing fentanyl and hydromorphone. In addition, a strip search uncovered a blister pack containing a hydromorphone tablet, a tourniquet, a needle and two vials of hydromorphone in her underwear, according to the complaint.

The DEA quoted senior pharmacy officials at Reid as saying that in the summer of 2016, reports, including proactive diversion reports, stopped being generated for review of controlled substance activities related to the hospital’s automated-medication dispensing systems.

“This failure was not discovered until Hibbard was arrested for diverting controlled substances in January 2017,” the DEA reported.

To correct the problem, weekly dispensing-system reports are now reviewed for unusual activity; Reid began discussing the possibility of system-wide, random drug testing; cameras were being pursued; and staff received “substance abuse in the workplace” training, Reid’s pharmacy director, Brad Hester, wrote in a letter on April 20 to the DEA.

Hibbard also admitted that she had consumed another vial of fentanyl by squirting it into her mouth. Hospital records showed that she stole nearly 900 units of medication valued at about $72,000 over the course of nearly half a year.