Nurse Accused of Stealing, Diluting Medication

Nurse Accused of Stealing, Diluting Medication


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Samantha Hayes reporting What the doctor ordered is not what patients got at a Utah hospital. A nurse stole medication for her own personal use.

That nurse is facing criminal charges, including insurance fraud. And state investigators say it's not the only incident.

Investigators say this is just one of several cases involving patients' insurance companies getting billed for medications never taken.

The painkiller Demerol was prescribed, but distilled water is what patients got.

From May to August 2003, nurse Camille Porter admitted to taking the painkiller from the LDS Hospital Endoscopy Department.

Investigators say she filled syringes of Demerol with distilled water, leaving a diluted painkiller to be used on patients.

Shane Tiernan/ Insurance Fraud Investigator: "The nurse or whoever is coming after would not know that it wasn't Demerol in the syringe."

Because the narcotic was diluted, patients required more doses. Their insurance companies were charged for it.

Shane Tiernan: "This is a real problem. It happens in facilities. There are nurses, doctors, that have been diverting narcotics for their own personal use."

The billing for these altered narcotics is estimated to have cost insurance companies more than $17,000 and this insurance fraud case, like many others, has become so prevalent now that the federal government is getting more involved.

Gib Wilson/ FBI: "Health care is such an insidious problem, it touches them in their pocket book. It touches them in terms of their ability to provide for their family and their ability to pay for insurance."

In Utah the task force was formed just this month. It combines federal and state agencies in an effort to investigate and prosecute more cases of health insurance fraud.

Gib Wilson: "The Health Care Fraud Task Force was formed to combat large scale fraud, not just in our marketplace, but every market place in the United States."

In this particular case, Porter is also facing charges of theft by deception and illegal possession of a controlled substance.

And the Department of Professional Licensing has an administrative case against her.

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