Pyxis error

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello colleagues,

I really need some opinions and advice. Last Thursday (7/28/16), I was escorted to HR, in which they showed me a print out report of my transactions from the Pyxis the day before. It showed I had removed a narcotic on a patient that wasn't my patient and not even in my dept(PACU), but in pre-admission tesing I found out. I never go to that dept I said, and this was not my patient, and I didn't perform this transaction. They informed me I had to submit my fingerprint for this transaction. I continued to tell them I never made that transaction.I also provided them with as much details of that day. Long story short: I was suspended w/o pay, submitted to a drug test, which was negative and had to be driven home from work in my car by someone else with the director of security following behind. This has left me devastated, horrified, scared to death, mentally and physically stressed. I am not a druggie nor a drug thief!!! I've been a nurse 41 yrs! Why on earth would I do this now?? I know they have policies, but they still damaged my integrity, character and reputation as my coworkers knew something was up before me! I can't eat or sleep. I have prayed and prayed. I'm truly scared I'm going to lose my livelihood, go to jail, God knows what else. I called this past Monday and left a message for the HR director to call me back. Never got a call. I heard today she is on vacation. I tried to get hold of the person covering for her, but could not get thru to HR or even leave a message. I finally called another dept director for help, and she took a message to that person..never got a call back today. Tried to call again before they closed. No answer and not able to leave a message. I have consulted with one attorney, who basically took my money and didn't give me any encouragement, only that he could send them a letter for $1000. Needless to say, I'm looking for someone else, but I can't afford an attorney and make too much money for a pro bono attorney. Tomorrow is my last paycheck. What then?

I truly believe this is based on human error in the Pyxis, but how can I prove it?? Please send me your opinion and advice on this mishap. Any article links would be greatly appreciated as I need all the info I can to prove my case.

Thank you so much in advance. I trust going to my colleagues because I believe we take care of each other!

Respectfully,

DD

Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

Our Pyxis only requires a dual sign out if it something like 5:1 dilaudid PCA syringes

As far as driving you home, I guess if they thought you were impaired and let you drive, they would be liable.

Keep us posted. I agree with a PP-get a lawyer somehow.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

License defense attorney. The American Association of Nurse Attorneys has a referral system on their website you need an administrative law attorney specialized in these issues.

TAANA Executive Office - Home

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Specializes in Critical Care.

With our pyxises (pyxies?) it's possible to log in with a password instead of your fingerprint - when they say "you had to submit your fingerprint for this transaction" do they mean they know definitively that you were logged in via fingerprint recognition, or was it more of a general statement about how things normally go? Semantics, I know, but if someone had your login and password it would be very possible to pull meds under your name. If, on the other hand, you were logged in with both the correct user name and fingerprint I don't know what to tell you. Seems like that would be incredibly difficult to disprove.

Either way I'd lawyer up and make sure to go through your documentation with a fine-tooth comb. Do you have a timestamp that shows you were somewhere else at the time? Did you accidentally pull or administer the med under the wrong patient? Does your facility have cameras that show you were in a different place or at least definitely not at that pyxis at the time?

Awful situation, I can't even imagine the stress you're going through. Good luck with everything :)

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Specializes in NICU.

I also wonder if you pulled a narc on your own pt at the same time but selected the wrong pt on the pyxis?

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Specializes in Critical care.
Our Pyxis doesn't require a dual login...the fingerprint takes the places of the typed username/password. The only times another RN needs to log in or fingerprint are for wastes and for certain meds we can't pull after hours (stuff that pharmacy has not yet verified). And we have plenty of times we meds from another floor or unit. On many occasions pharmacy has not adequately stocked our Pyxis and we end up pulling meds from down in ICU or another floor, including narcs.

Interesting to read how places differ! :)

Is pharmacy not available 24/7 at your hospital? Pharmacy profiles everything for us and if we need a med in the middle of the night we can have it tubed to us or send someone down to get it.

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Is pharmacy not available 24/7 at your hospital? Pharmacy profiles everything for us and if we need a med in the middle of the night we can have it tubed to us or send someone down to get it.

Nope, pharmacy is there until 2100 weekdays and 1500 on Saturdays. We have a pharmacist on call but it is a rare occasion indeed when they are called for something during the night!

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If you truly did not take out that drug, I suggest you contact a personal injury lawyer who specializes in labor/working. Lawyers do not charge for consultations so I suggest you report the one who charged you $100 to the bar association. If the lawyers you contact are demanding money upfront they are scamming you. The personal injury lawyer will take your case for free, if you lose you pay nothing, if you win the lawyer takes 20-30% from the settlement. If what you are saying is true we are not taking about peanuts, we are talking five figure settlement.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
If you truly did not take out that drug, I suggest you contact a personal injury lawyer who specializes in labor/working. Lawyers do not charge for consultations so I suggest you report the one who charged you $100 to the bar association. If the lawyers you contact are demanding money upfront they are scamming you. The personal injury lawyer will take your case for free, if you lose you pay nothing, if you win the lawyer takes 20-30% from the settlement. If what you are saying is true we are not taking about peanuts, we are talking five figure settlement.

This is not personal injury but administrative law that knows employment law and nursing license defense. (Like TAANA Executive Office - Home) Exactly what damages were resulting from this issue? What medical care did the nurse require as a result of the accusation?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Sounds like you forgot to log off and someone else pulled it under your name. I would bring this up and hopefully they'll understand this is an entirely probable scenario, especially because your drug screen was negative, and they'll thoroughly investigate. My hospital has cameras everywhere.

If they don't, then I would pursue a lawyer. You weren't fired, correct? Still, to clear your name and not have this red flag on your record it would worth it. Try to find someone that offers a free consultation before you pay them.

At the end of the day, you were suspended. The good news is it's not the end of your career. Be careful, be sure you always log off, and let us know what ends up happening.

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It really makes me made when hospitals purchase equiptment and are not familiar with how it works. The Pyxis Medstation establishes a BioID for each user, i.e. it scans your fingerprint.

HOWEVER, It is not storing the user's fingerprint. The mechanism measures a mathmatical distance between specific ridges in the user's fingerprint and converts these into a mathmatical algorithm. It is possible for two users' finger scan to produce identical ridge measurements and therefore the Pyxis will register the same mathematical algorithm for more than one user.

Your employer should have known of this possibility when they purchased the Pyxis as well as the issues from hand sanitizers etc. Good luck.

See the newletter regarding how the scanner works below:

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Specializes in Critical care.
Nope, pharmacy is there until 2100 weekdays and 1500 on Saturdays. We have a pharmacist on call but it is a rare occasion indeed when they are called for something during the night!

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Praying for you. I can only imagine what you are going through .

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