Is nothing sacred? Thief holds up nurses at gun point!

[azxyrn]

I recently had to sit for a inservice at a local facility I work at, the topic: Armed robbery of nursing homes. The items taken at gun point; narcotics! During this impromptu meeting, nurses who had worked in other states said this is pretty common, as Health Department regs prevent facilities from dispensing from a pixus like hospitals (except for new admits or pending deliveries), it makes a prime target for thieves. I couldn't believe it, but when doing a count for the on-coming shift it became blatantly apparent, in two locked boxes on my cart alone contained 65 cards of class II, III, and IV meds. Here I had seen on T.V. these dumb druggies holding up pharmacies for a few bottles of oxycontin, and low-and-behold I had probably that many and even more in my medication cart than a corner drugstore! I guess my biggest thing that I keep mulling over is everyone has a stereotype for nursing homes; where grandma and grandpa go when they crash their cadillac through a store window because they can't see over the dashboard. Yet these scumbags go in and pray on us nurses using strong arm tactics/guns to get a quick fix. In an ever-changing field where it seems nursing gets harder and more complicated, it just seems we never catch a break. Who knows, one day we will all wear a panic button on our narc keys similiar to a bank teller for the ocasional robbery... Have you ever experienced something like this or know if this has been a problem for a while and is now getting worse?

Here's a link at Arizona Republic detailing the newest trend in crime..

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/02/17/20090217abrk-nursinghomerobbery0217-ON.html

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

According to the article, the scum-sucking criminals entered the facility through the front door at 4:30 AM. I question if the front doors were unlocked at 4:30 AM. Or did they break in? And if so, how? That makes the facility a target right there.

When I worked in a small ER, from 11 PM to 7 AM, we locked the doors to the ER. The doors were bullet-proof, and I don't know how anyone could have broken in, short of driving a vehicle through the doors. People had to hit a buzzer at the entrance. We'd eye them, then let them in. On rare occasions we'd call security to meet the people on the other side. Are there regulations now that prevent locking the doors during the PM hours? Maybe I was spoiled with good security precautions?

[azxyrn]

"I question if the front doors were unlocked at 4:30 AM. Or did they break in? And if so, how? That makes the facility a target right there."

Yeah I agree, but the scuttlebutt among some of my coworkers is that the thieves entered from the side entrance which was "coded" with a magnet lock and required a code(not from the front door as reported). But the code had been the same for years, and worse; supposedly there has been more facilities that have had this happen. I don't blame the police for not advertising that these crimes are happening, otherwise there would be this max influx of everybody and their brother trying to knock-off nursing homes. It's just unbelievably sad that some would stoop so low.