Katherine Jee Rankin, RN, a nurse formerly employed at a Jacksonville, Fla.-based ASC, pleaded guilty to tampering with injectable hydromorphone at the facility, according to an Oct. 3 report from Shore News Network.
Ms. Rankin was terminated from the facility on Oct. 13, 2022, after a supervisor noticed she forged an anesthesia record. Surveillance footage caught Ms. Rankin removing medication from a controlled substances cabinet after she had been terminated.
She told three other employees that she had been stealing medication from the facility due to an addiction, according to the report.
Lab tests found that four vials Ms. Rankin returned to the facility had been altered. The caps had been removed and glued back on and the medication in each vial had been diluted.
A review of patient records found they had been tampered with, including instances where records reported that 200 ml of hydromorphone was administered — an unusually high dosage.
Ms. Rankin faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.