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Egregious Acts of Healthcare Addicts
Journalists are reporting the impact of drug addicted healthcare workers in national and local publications. Newsweek detailed how a radiology technician addicted to fentanyl caused a national health crisis by infecting scores of patients with the hepatitis C virus. Employed initially at a facility in Phoenix, the radiology technician became “a traveler” (a healthcare worker who agencies place on short-term contracts at hospitals around the country) after he mistak- enly administered succinylcholine,
a powerful paralytic, and was found unconscious in the Phoenix facility’s bathroom. Because the technician only infused a fraction of the entire vial, he survived. The hospital didn’t prosecute — a very common prac- tice — and the technician went on to work at 18 hospitals in seven states, infecting at least 45 people with hepa- titis C at hospitals in New Hampshire, Kansas, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Although the technician knew he was infected, he self-injected fentanyl in- tended as pain medication for patients and replaced the syringe contents with saline solution.3
In Colorado, The Denver Post pro- vided a comprehensive overview of drug-addicted workers and processes that enable addicts to continue em- ployment. A surgical technician who injected fentanyl intended for patients caused one hospital to offer free blood tests to about 2,900 patients in 2016. The technician carried an uniden- ti ed bloodborne illness; patients were tested for HIV and hepatitis. Previously, the technician had been court-martialed for fentanyl theft while stationed in Afghanistan, yet he managed to nd surgical tech jobs and be red from hospitals in Washington, California and Arizona before hired by the Colorado facility.
At least two Colorado hospital workers died from prescription drug overdose, one in 2010 and another in 2014. The latter involved an anes- thesiologist found dead at her home. The autopsy revealed toxic levels of cocaine and fentanyl in her blood; old and new puncture marks dotted her legs. Patients who may have been affected by the addicted anesthesi- ologist were never contacted.
As is common throughout many states, Colorado hospital workers
who are caught stealing powerful narcotics often aren’t reported to police or federal authorities. Their names don’t show up on state licens- ing disciplinary lists unless the state takes formal action against them. Even when addicts are red, they can keep their licenses — and their histories secret—by promising to enter drug treatment.4
Diversion in the Community
Community and retail pharmacies are not immune to drug theft by addicted employees. The Ohio Dispatch reported methods used by pharmacy technicians in Ohio—which is among eight states that does not require technicians to have licensing, regis- tration or certi cation by the state board of pharmacy — to steal oral narcotics. A pharmacy technician at a rural community pharmacy dropped vials of oxycodone on the oor at
the cash register. When she bent to retrieve them, she pocketed a few of the addictive painkillers for herself. Another pharmacy tech in Ohio would grab a box full of promethazine, cough medicine with codeine, and deceptively drop it into the trash.
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A radiology technician addicted to fentanyl caused a national health crisis by infecting scores of patients with the hepatitis C virus.