Missing narcs. Being blamed!

Nurses General Nursing

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An RN supervisor in Long Term Care in NY accepts delivery of a shipment of narcotics from an outside pharmacy. Logs them into the book, delivers them to the units/LPNs. Three days later she is called at home and told that they cannot find 90 pills of Vicodin, which was part of the shipment. There is no policy that requires the LPN to sign when receiving meds on unit. There is an investigation, and 3 months later the supervisor is arrested, and license suspended pending further investigation. Awaiting trial at the end of next month.

How is te RN supervisor to blame after 3 days? No one noticed the drugs were missing the next day?

Any advice, comments, or similar situations are much appreciated! :no::nurse:

Specializes in psych. rehab nursing, float pool.

Sorry this has happened to you. Hind site of course is a better policy needed to be in place so that not only you who originally signs for all the narcotics and logs them in, then delivers to carts/LPN's who then should have also needed to sign for them to validate the types and amounts of narcotics being accepted. BIG time SYSTEM ERROR as I see it.

I am hoping you have a good support system you need it. Representation absolutely you need one.

Best guess is, one or both of the LPN's when asked stated no such narcotic was given to them. It then unfortunately becomes your word against theirs. Not fair.

Good example as to why policies need to be in place to avoid this very thing. I know that does not help you.

I might be also, in your shoes be careful of what I post on a public forum. We all tend to write in a short hand manner meaning we do not give each and every detail. Or we have managed to write in such a way as it can be miscontrued, seen as something being left out etc. In no way am am I placing any judgement on you personally. It was just a second thought I had. I had seen someone else on another forum who said that when we write in forums it can be used as discovery something and could be used in a court of law. Wish I could recall the exact term, none the less only food for thought.

Good luck.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Sounds like RN and rep from pharmacy logged i.e signed . the Vicodin in to the book more than likely. But then it took 3 days to miss them. Last I knew it's required by law to count these items frequently which obviously was not done or was fraudulently done as it took said 3 days for drugs to be noticed missing. Otherwise there would be no case. :twocents:

Rj

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Thanks for your input everyone. I do have an attorney, but I was just curious as to others opinions. He thinks there is nothing to worry about, but that the facility has this policy so that they can put the blame on one particular person, and not them as a whole facility. Nothing in terms of evidence or anything has been found, but I know arrests are often made solely based on accusation- not proof. No drug history, never even a speeding ticket. I'm not too worried- just upset, embarrased, hurt & annoyed. :banghead: :confused: :cool:

Thanks for the comments

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Specializes in Emergency.

Posted in error

Rj

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Specializes in LTC.

Good luck again!! You have nothing to be embarrased about, keep your head up :)

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earle58- i clearly stated that they were logged into the book. Am I misunderstanding you or vise versa??

I'm seeing your situation as you accepted the shipment, logged it into the book but DELIVERED the narcs to the floor to the LPN...and that is where they disappeared.

Is this correct?

Then the problem is the procedure...you say you left them, obviously an LPN said that you didn't...if the facility has the problem of not having an additional signature in place once the narcs hit the floor so you can "pass them off".

No way can they prove you took them...nor the LPN either.

PS: Here would be my defense: "If I was planning on stealing the narcs, I wouldn't have logged them in the book at all."

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get An Attorney Asap!

yes Tou Made It Clear That You Logged Them In. The Point People Wonder: How Often Were They Counted? Every Shift? Every Day? The Facility Should Have A Policy Re: Not Only Entering Them In The Log Book But Also Maintaining Security On Daily Basis

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