what are my ethical responsibilities?

BChapp3182 · Nov 23, 2008

I think you should do something. Report your concerns to the board of nursing, they will investigate. They just had a special segment on the news in my area about pain clinics and showed people in the parking lot selling pills, snorting and injecting them, throwing bags of clean urine they hid in their pants onto the sidewalk in order to pass the drug tests. It was shocking to say the least.

ANPFNPGNP · Nov 26, 2008

I'm wondering what my responsibility is after finally getting out of a bad work situation (Friday was my last day.)
It wasn't just bad business practices or abusing, overworking, not paying and being horrible to employees. There are other ethical/legal issues that came up: Just one example: The FNP who runs/owns the clinic gives out huge quantities of narcotics and never does drug testing on the patients. Patients are always getting early refills because they "lost" their bottle of pills or it "fell in the toilet" or "went through the washing machine" or "their purse was stolen". Or they need early refills because they are "going on vacation." (For people who are disabled by chronic pain and unable to work, they sure take a lot of vacations!). The amounts are red flags in my opinion because the dose would not be humanly possible to ingest without being dead or in a coma. I think patients might be selling the drugs on the street. I can't believe the pharmacy doesn't call thinking it's a typo. 1400 (yes, that's fourteen hundred) Oxycodone for a 1 month supply? Isn't that like 50 pills per day???
Do I need to report my concerns to the Board of Nursing? the Board of medicine? The DEA?
I am relieved to be out of their for fear of losing my license and being affiliated with possible illegal activities.
Should i do anything? or just walk away?

You don't have a choice but to report this. If something happens and they find out you had knowledge of all of this, but didn't report it, then you are just as liable as they are!

I don't know which state you live in, but this information needs to be reported to the Board of Nursing and the DEA...possibly the Board of Medicine, depending on the practice situation in your state. Make sure you write down all of this information, such as patient names, drugs they were prescribed, etc. You will be surprised at how slow this whole process is and it's important that you don't forget any information. I was asked to submit a sworn statement to the Board of Medicine almost TWO YEARS after I reported the doctor!

Fourteen hundred oxycodone in one month will NOT be overlooked by the DEA or any other agency! You also need to contact your local district attorney's office about this. PLEASE keep me posted...more people need to REPORT this type of behavior instead of just walking away, because THEY DON'T WANT TO GET INVOLVED! :angryfire

BarbaraNP · Nov 29, 2008

This sounds like a similar situation I was in a few years ago, only it was an MD. In my case, it was not just narcotics, but I suspected fraud when I was suddenly asked to start signing the HCFA's. When I refused, because the bills were in error, I was told, that's okay, I'll just put the doctors stamp on it. (I was out of there and opened my own practice within 6 months).

Rest assured, this sort of thing is being picked up by the DEA. Unfortunately, they take forever (or so it seems) to complete their investigations. At least, this seems to be the case for my former employer. At least I know it's being investigated as I've had several conversations with federal investigators.

Likely other providers (and the ER's) are aware of the situation - they were in the case of my employer. My previously stellar reputation was tarnished and it's taken awhile to get it back. Don't be surpirsed if the same thing happens to you.

As to your question...yes, you need to report this. Consider the nursing board and/or the pharmacy board. Chances are, they are already watching.

Best wishes to you. This is not a pleasant thing to go through.

BarbaraNP

ANPFNPGNP · Nov 30, 2008

This sounds like a similar situation I was in a few years ago, only it was an MD. In my case, it was not just narcotics, but I suspected fraud when I was suddenly asked to start signing the HCFA's. When I refused, because the bills were in error, I was told, that's okay, I'll just put the doctors stamp on it. (I was out of there and opened my own practice within 6 months).
Rest assured, this sort of thing is being picked up by the DEA. Unfortunately, they take forever (or so it seems) to complete their investigations. At least, this seems to be the case for my former employer. At least I know it's being investigated as I've had several conversations with federal investigators.
Likely other providers (and the ER's) are aware of the situation - they were in the case of my employer. My previously stellar reputation was tarnished and it's taken awhile to get it back. Don't be surpirsed if the same thing happens to you.
As to your question...yes, you need to report this. Consider the nursing board and/or the pharmacy board. Chances are, they are already watching.
Best wishes to you. This is not a pleasant thing to go through.
BarbaraNP

You're right, it takes a long time for the entire process to be completed. The DEA and Board of Medicine can't give out confidential information, but you would be surprised as to what is going on behind the scenes. It's very possible the doctor is fighting the charges and none of it has been made public.

The Board of Medicine keeps me updated every few months regarding my case. When and if there's a disciplinary hearing, I'll get to attend it. This doc has already been booted off a couple of major insurance carriers for performing unnecessary procedures, so I'm pretty sure this won't end well for him. All I can say is, he deserves everything he gets!