State prosecutors on Tuesday accused a now former Mount Nittany Medical Center nurse of using subterfuge and falsifying records to acquire morphine that she never administered to patients but rather kept for herself.
According to a criminal complaint filed by investigators for the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, access records and video showed registered nurse Elizabeth Buckins, 47, of Hollidaysburg, used a controlled system to dispense vials of morphine sulfate that were not delivered to the emergency department patients for whom she indicated they were drawn on three occasions in June and July.
When hospital staff became aware of what Buckins was allegedly doing, she was pulled from work and sent for a fitness for duty examination. A urinalysis drug screen yielded positive results for morphine, amphetamine and marijuana, according to the complaint.
The investigation began on July 7 when another nurse entered an employee restroom that requires ID scanning for entry and found a syringe in the toilet. The nurse who found it did not access the medication system that day and immediately reported it to security and a supervisor, investigators wrote. Records allegedly showed Buckins was the last person to enter the restroom before the syringe was discovered.
An investigation found that Buckins withdrew morphine from the fingerprint-controlled medication system, which also requires a patient name and corresponding prescription, about six minutes before entering the restroom. She then manually recorded the time she claimed it was administered to the patient instead of using the more precise and common procedure of scanning the medication barcode and patient wristband at the time of administration, according to the complaint.
“A manual entry can be entered at any time on a patient’s chart and is an indication of drug diversion,” an investigator wrote.
Reviews of two incidents in June allegedly revealed that Buckins used syringes of saline to make it appear in the presence of another nurse that she was “wasting” or properly disposing of excess amounts of morphine. Instead, investigators wrote, Buckins kept the leftover amount concealed in a vial in her pocket.
According to Pennsylvania Department of State records, Buckins’ nursing license was indefinitely suspended in September. Mount Nittany Health spokesperson Tania Luciow confirmed Buckins no longer works at the hospital.
“Quality, safety and privacy are top priorities at Mount Nittany Health, for patients and staff,” Luciow wrote in an email. “We cannot comment on individual patient or personnel matters, although we can confirm this individual no longer works at Mount Nittany Medical Center. We alerted and cooperated with authorities, and will continue to support the investigation as needed.”
Buckins was charged with three felony counts of acquiring a controlled substance by misrepresentation and three misdemeanor counts each of possession of a controlled substance and furnishing false or fraudulent material information under the Controlled Substances Act.
She was arraigned on Tuesday morning by District Judge Casey McClain and released on recognizance. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 21.
