Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, N.H., will pay $2 million to settle allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act by failing to keep accurate records of controlled substances, including opioids.
The Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating the hospital after a nurse had stolen 23 IV bags of fentanyl solution from an medication dispensing machine. Cheshire Medical Center disclosed the theft to the DEA in February 2022 and later reported that an additional 634 bags of fentanyl were unaccounted for.
The nurse who allegedly stole these drugs died on March 3, 2022, according to the Justice Department. In April 2022, DEA investigators conducted audits of eight controlled substances at the hospital's inpatient pharmacy, which included audits of fentanyl 2 milliliter vial; fentanyl 50 milliliter vial; fentanyl 50 milliliter IV bag; midazolam 2 milliliter vial; lorazepam 1 milliliter vial; hydromorphone 4 milligram tablet; hydromorphone 1 milliliter vial; and morphine sulfate 1 milliliter vial.
This audit revealed an additional 17,961 missing controlled substance units and various recordkeeping deficiencies on behalf of Cheshire Medical Center, such as failing to maintain accurate purchase and dispensation records.
The hospital also failed to regularly review reports to look for possible diversion, did not have sufficient structures in place to alert it to the greatly increased purchasing of controlled substances from one month to the other and to enforce various controlled substance security policies, according to the Justice Department.
The settlement resolves allegations that the hospital violated the recordkeeping requirements of the CSA.