Iowa nurses sanctioned for stolen drugs, social-media posts, falsified records – Iowa Capital Dispatch

The state of Iowa has suspended the license of a nurse who allegedly stole medicine from aged nursing dwelling residents.

State information point out that in August 2019, a Fort Dodge man was mowing his yard when he discovered a handbag that had been tossed into the bushes alongside his property. When he and his spouse seemed contained in the purse, they discovered a number of small, white envelopes containing capsules, together with an worker identification badge for Pamela Hook, a nurse on the QHC Villa nursing dwelling in Fort Dodge.

The couple returned the purse to the house, the place QHC Villa Administrator Penny Moellers discovered that the envelopes have been of the identical sort utilized by the ability and contained Trazodone, Atarax, Lorazepam and Seroquel.

Hook reportedly acknowledged the purse was hers and stated she had left it in her locked automotive earlier than embarking on a visit. When requested concerning the capsules within the purse, Hook allegedly stated little besides that the Trazedone capsules have been hers, based on state information.

When requested why one of many envelopes had the title of a 96-year-old QHC resident on it, Hook allegedly didn’t reply. When Moellers informed Hook she was suspended pending an investigation of the matter, Hook allegedly turned offended and began yelling and cursing at Moellers whereas questioning Moellers’ authority to look her purse, based on state information.

Moellers subsequently discovered that Hook appeared to have disbursed extra “as wanted” drugs to residents than different nurses on the dwelling. She fired Hook, who then filed for unemployment advantages, claiming the capsules belonged to her and her daughter. She was denied advantages after she allegedly admitted to an investigator with the state’s Medicaid Fraud Management Unit she took the capsules from the ability and that they have been marked with the title of the resident to whom the medicine had been prescribed.

When interviewed later by one other state investigator, Hook allegedly denied any wrongdoing and stated she had confessed solely as a result of she was “sick and bored with the entire bull—-” and needed to get the opposite investigator “off my again.”

The Division of Inspections and Appeals issued a report indicating an allegation of dependent-adult abuse in opposition to Hook was based. In 2020, Hook appealed that ruling.

After a listening to on the matter, Administrative Legislation Choose Barbara Tapscott dominated in opposition to Hook, noting a number of contradictory statements Hook made to investigators. “She affords no rationalization as to how that particular person might have obtained her purse, planted drugs in it, and positioned it within the bushes,” Tapscott acknowledged.

Hook’s title was then positioned on the state abuse registry, and the Iowa Board of Nursing charged Hook with misappropriating drugs.

A listening to was held, throughout which Hook continued to disclaim stealing any resident drugs, saying she usually saved such medication in her purse so she might extra rapidly dispense them to residents on the care middle.  On the identical listening to, she prompt the medication could have been planted in her purse.

After discovering Hook lacked credibility, the board voted to droop her license indefinitely, though she might be eligible for reinstatement after finishing a substance abuse analysis and any remedy that’s really useful. After reinstatement, her license might be positioned on probation for one yr, topic to monitoring and different situations imposed by the board.

In its choice, the board praised Hook, saying she “is captivated with nursing and cares for her sufferers. She was well liked by her co-workers.

Board takes different disciplinary actions

In unrelated issues, the board lately reported taking motion in a number of different disciplinary circumstances:

— Narcotic use: In July and August of final yr, Alissa Byers of Sioux Metropolis was convicted of home assault, possession of marijuana, possession of oxycodone and a felony cost of acquiring a prescription drug by fraud. She additionally was identified with a extreme opiate and hashish dysfunction, based on the Board of Nursing.

After Byers was convicted, the board charged Byers with the fraudulent use of prescription blanks whereas employed at an Iowa clinic. The board lately agreed to settle the case by inserting Byers’ license on probation for not less than 12 months.

Court docket information point out Byers labored on the Tri-State Specialists clinic in Sioux Metropolis when the crimes occurred. Prosecutors alleged that over a 14-month interval, Byers submitted 21 prescriptions to 2 pharmacies within the title of her husband, with out his data and for her personal use.

She then submitted an extra 19 prescriptions to 3 totally different pharmacies in her personal title and for her personal use, prosecutors alleged. She additionally was accused of utilizing deceit to have one physician on the clinic authorize controlled-substance opiates for varied sufferers – changing the sufferers’ names on the prescriptions along with her personal title, after which altering the affected person information within the Tri-State pc system to hide her actions.

In a earlier disciplinary case from March 2020, the Board of Nursing ordered Byers to bear seven hours of instructional coaching after alleging that she had tried to tamper with a pre-employment drug display through the use of one other particular person’s urine. On the time, Byers examined constructive for a prescription ache medicine for which she had no legitimate prescription, the board discovered.

— Unauthorized drug allotting: In June, the board charged Nicole Siebels of Monticello with improper delegation of nursing obligations. In keeping with the board, Siebels labored as the chief director of an assisted residing middle when, on a number of events, she supplied her computer-access credentials to a non-certified workers member. She did this, the board stated, in order that when she was off responsibility, the opposite employee might doc in medical information that residents had obtained their drugs.

The board agreed to settle the case by requiring that Siebels obtain 30 hours of schooling coaching on the idea of essential considering. The board didn’t determine the assisted residing middle the place Siebels labored or point out whether or not the residents had really obtained their medicine.

— Affected person privateness: In January, the Iowa Board of Nursing charged Danielle Chambers of Council Bluffs with violating the confidentiality or privateness rights of a affected person. The board alleged that round April 20, 2021, whereas employed at a hospital, Chambers used her private mobile phone to “report a medical incident involving a affected person and shared it on social media.”

The board’s public assertion of fees provides no indication as to the hospital the place Chambers labored, the character of the medical occasion, or whether or not the social-media publish concerned an audio or video recording.

The board lately accepted a settlement settlement within the case, which stipulates that whereas Chambers’ license stays in full impact, she should take 30 hours of instructional coaching on the federal Well being Info Portability and Accountability Act.

In keeping with board information, Chambers’ license was quickly suspended in 2016, three years after she was convicted of drunken driving and one yr after she was convicted of acquiring or trying to acquire a prescription by deceit. At the moment, Chambers was practising underneath the title Danielle Frigge.