The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has agreed to pay $4.5 million to resolve allegations that its violations of the Controlled Substances Act allowed hospital staff to divert fentanyl and other dangerous drugs from the hospital, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.
The civil settlement – which also includes an extensive corrective action plan – is the culmination of a three-year-long joint DEA and U.S. Attorney’s Office investigation of UTSW’s handling of controlled substances, which began in December 2018 after two UTSW nurses overdosed on fentanyl and died at UTSW’s Clements University Hospital. This marks the largest settlement involving allegations of drug diversion at a hospital in the state of Texas and the second largest in the nation.
“For years prior to our investigation, U.T. Southwestern exhibited an almost shocking disregard for its obligations under the Controlled Substance Act, enabling some employees to steal and abuse prescription narcotics – including powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. We felt that the serial compliance failures we uncovered warranted a multi-million-dollar penalty and a stringent corrective action plan,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “In this settlement agreement, we’re doing everything in our power to mitigate the threat of opioid diversion by outlining protocols above and beyond what’s required by law.”
“U.T. Southwestern has an obligation to keep the highest standard of care for their patients. They also have an obligation of internal safeguards to keep controlled substances from being diverted,” said DEA Dallas Special Agent in Charge, Eduardo A. Chávez. “Opioids, like fentanyl, do not discriminate in its addictive properties when diverted or taken outside the direction and supervision of medical professionals. In this time of record overdose deaths, health care systems must be held to compliance with the Controlled Substances Act. This is not only their legal responsibility, but also a matter of public trust and public safety. DEA Dallas pledges that we will tirelessly work with our law enforcement and regulatory partners to ensure these rules and regulations are followed to combat the opioid epidemic.”
In settlement documents, the government contends that UTSW violated multiple provisions of the Controlled Substances Act over a five-year period, and that as a result UTSW employees were able to divert controlled substances – including fentanyl — from UTSW’s Clements University Hospital and Zale Lipshy Pavilion.
As a DEA registrant, UTSW had certain recordkeeping and reporting obligations which included monitoring all controlled substance activity within its facilities and promptly notifying the DEA whenever a theft or significant loss occurred. The DEA determined that UTSW’s failure to meet certain of these recordkeeping and reporting obligations, along with the medical center’s failure to maintain effective controls to consistently detect and monitor suspected diversion, contributed to the health system’s overall failure to “guard against the theft and diversion of controlled substances.”
During its investigation, the DEA identified incidents in which registered nurses diverted controlled substances from UTSW over significant periods of time. Tragically, two such diversions resulted in fatal overdoses.
On Dec. 15, 2016, a UTSW nurse overdosed on fentanyl diverted from UTSW’s Clements University Hospital and was found deceased in a hospital bathroom. Roughly 16 months later, on April 16, 2018, another UTSW nurse overdosed on diverted opioids, including fentanyl, and was found deceased in a different Clements Hospital bathroom.
According to the settlement documents, although UTSW did report certain instances of theft and loss to the DEA, it did not do so in a timely manner. It also failed to properly document the dispensing and “wasting” of controlled substances – an essential safeguard against diversion.
Mandatory Facts:
* Defendant/respondent: The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
* Exact criminal charges: Violations of the Controlled Substances Act
* City and state: Dallas, Texas
* Exact date: December 2018
* Sentence/outcome: $4.5 million settlement and corrective action plan
* Dollar amount: $4.5 million
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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