pt. called in narcotics under MY name...now what

Nurses General Nursing

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Im an lvn at a clinic. I just found out a pt of ours, who was denied her last request of hydrocodone phoned it herself using my name. We found this out because she did not include strength and the pharmacy faxed over a clarification fax. I am angry. What is the best way to handle this now? I did speak with the pharmacy, they said they have an investigator who will check into it. Should I file a police report? Tell the board? has this happened to any of you and what is the best way to handle it. My license is dear to me and I am offended someone would jeapardize it.

Specializes in Med/Tele.

I work in a pharmacy and patients do that more than you would think, some I'm sure do it and never get caught. If we find out one was phone in by a patient or someone other than the doctor/nurse we let the dr. and police know. It's up to the Dr. to press charges. We had a nurse one time who called in narcotics under different names and picked them up herself. She had charges pressed against her bc the Dr. said she no longer worked there and was very upset she was calling them in under his name!

Anyways, bottom line is if they contacted the police and filed a report you are not in danger of anything happening to you :)

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Specializes in Orthopaedic Nursing; Geriatrics.

I had a similar thing happen when I worked in an office several years ago. The offender was another nurse, a patient of ours and one of my best friends. It turned out that the pharmacist called me because he knew my voice very well and knew it wasn't me that called. He also knew her and her drug habit (which I didn't know until then) and he recognized her voice! I don't think he called the police, but my doctor and I confronted her in person. Of course she denied it. End of friendship and professional relationship.

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I had a similar thing happen when I worked in an office several years ago. The offender was another nurse, a patient of ours and one of my best friends. It turned out that the pharmacist called me because he knew my voice very well and knew it wasn't me that called. He also knew her and her drug habit (which I didn't know until then) and he recognized her voice! I don't think he called the police, but my doctor and I confronted her in person. Of course she denied it. End of friendship and professional relationship.

I'm sorry. I had a co-worker that was diverting meds to shoot up with... it really hurt a lot of us that she was doing that (and making the patients suffer with unrelieved pain), and that she was in trouble and didn't come to at least one of us. :( She was a really good nurse (as a lot of nurse addicts are). The facility offered her rehab, and a job away from direct care- not sure where she ended up; she did come back, but relapsed- only so much an employer can do...

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
Im an lvn at a clinic. I just found out a pt of ours, who was denied her last request of hydrocodone phoned it herself using my name. We found this out because she did not include strength and the pharmacy faxed over a clarification fax. I am angry. What is the best way to handle this now? I did speak with the pharmacy, they said they have an investigator who will check into it. Should I file a police report? Tell the board? has this happened to any of you and what is the best way to handle it. My license is dear to me and I am offended someone would jeapardize it.

Good Lord, you have NO CONTROL if someone uses your name in the commission of ANY CRIME. Somebody could get arrested tomorrow and use my name. I don't worry about things like that.

You can report the person for identity theft..but other than that, no crime has been committed against you...it was against the pharmacy.

That is why they can trace calls, etc.

Seriously...let them do the investigation and don't worry about it. Your license is not in jeapardy.

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Specializes in none.

Call the Police. Tell them what happen. You have a license to protect. Then tell your boss. When you tell your boss that you have already call the cops, he/she will take steps to correct it. Protect Number One first.

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Call the Police. Tell them what happen. You have a license to protect. Then tell your boss. When you tell your boss that you have already call the cops, he/she will take steps to correct it. Protect Number One first.

This is an honest question- not being sarcastic... What is the crime against the nurse? Someone called in a phony prescription- that's a crime against the pharmacy....What will the police do? They don't care about her license. And she didn't DO anything :)

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Specializes in Med/Tele.
This is an honest question- not being sarcastic... What is the crime against the nurse? Someone called in a phony prescription- that's a crime against the pharmacy....What will the police do? They don't care about her license. And she didn't DO anything :)

Exactly.

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Thanks for the words I really do appreciate them. I do feel violated, I can tell some understand that, and some don't... thats ok :nurse: I do see it as identity theft and feel that IS against me and against my doctor. With out our names she couldnt get anything. As long as my name and my license are ok all I can really do is pray for her...And....report her as I have done, talk to our clinic head, and my Dr. who has fired her as a patient. The pharmacy has their own investigator. Thanks again I am starting to calm down :redpinkhe

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Thanks for the words I really do appreciate them. I do feel violated, I can tell some understand that, and some don't... thats ok :nurse: I do see it as identity theft and feel that IS against me and against my doctor. With out our names she couldnt get anything. As long as my name and my license are ok all I can really do is pray for her...And....report her as I have done, talk to our clinic head, and my Dr. who has fired her as a patient. The pharmacy has their own investigator. Thanks again I am starting to calm down :redpinkhe

I hear what you are saying- and I can appreciate the sense of violation... but this is someone who is dependent on drugs- it isn't about you personally (even though you are the one in the middle).... I know that may sound like I don't get it- I do (from different types of violation). If you weren't 'convenient' it would have been someone else- I'm glad your doc and the pharmacy are doing what they can- and it sounds like you have a really sweet heart. :) You should be fine w/your license. Sometimes patients can be scary and more sick than we can deal with- and it's hard.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

how did the patient even get your full name??? Thats aweful :( I think you are doing the right thing by reporting it. You could potentially be helping future health care professionals from experiencing this incident with this particular patient

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I live in a small town...they probably just said my name, and the doctor's name, clinic name and phone #. I was surprised they didn't recognize my voice though....Pretty hard to miss LOL

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At my job, the first thing I would do is notify my supervisior and fill out an incident report...

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