The health department suspended the two nurses’ licenses in August. The department is now investigating the remaining four nurses to determine if the drugs went missing due to a documentation error or because they were improperly taken.
The two suspended nurses had experienced previous pharmaceutical issues. One is accused of using the “override” command on Sibley’s drug distribution system 19 times to obtain medication for personal use without a proper order. The other nurse told a health department investigator she refused to take a drug screening test at her previous employer, Washington, D.C.-based Walter Reed Medical Center, after an investigation into whether she’d improperly taken medications.
Sibley Memorial Hospital spokesman Gary Stephenson said the hospital has a zero tolerance policy for inappropriate drug use. “While we are not at liberty to discuss personnel issues, we can assure you any such inappropriate use of controlled substances would be addressed quickly and aggressively, because the safety and wellbeing of our patients are always our top priority,” Mr. Stephenson said in a statement.
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