Tuesday, January 22, 2013

AG: Hospital tech stole painkillers, swapped drugs | Allegheny Co. News - WTAE Home

AG: Hospital tech stole painkillers, swapped drugs | Allegheny Co. News - WTAE Home


Attention Doctors, Nurses and Pharmacists. 

The news article “AG Hospital Tech Stole Painkillers Swapped Drugs” reported on the common problem of the abuse of narcotics and medications by those persons with access to narcotics.  This access to narcotics can be from a hospital pharmacy, or  McKesson and Pyxis narcotics dispensing machines.  However, where there is access to narcotics, there is abuse.  This abuse is referred to as “diversion” which mean narcotics are diverted from their prescribed purpose, and  instead abused or sold.

Hospitals regularly review patient charts, dispensing machine (McKesson and Pyxis) records and pharmacy records to determine if these narcotics are being used as prescribed.  When the records reflect a problem, such as a failure to administer all narcotics and failure to document waste, a red flag or alert is raised, and an investigation is initiated.  These investigations usually result in disciplinary action, license suspension, and even criminal prosecution. 

You can discover additional information about this problem by logging on to my website, or contacting me directly.
Source (WTAE.COM):  http://www.wtae.com/news/local/allegheny/AG-Hospital-tech-stole-painkillers-swapped-drugs/-/10927008/18049580/-/sabcg4/-/index.html

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