St. Vincent Hospital - Poor internal Processes and Tracking lead to 623,843 Stolen pills - by an employee

St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital is in deep trouble. To the tune of $2 million fined by federal authorities for failing to accurately track stolen painkillers. This fine is not the totality of the real damage - who knows how many painkillers were stolen and released on the open market prior to the employee being caught.

It is reported that one of the pharmacy employee allegedly stole 623,843 tablets of hydrocodone. This went on over a 2 year period. What makes it worse - is she was funneling them to her own adult son to sell on the street. This is not surprising to me - as the price for regulated painkillers on the open market is huge. If they are not tracked - internal employees figure that out - then this type of activity occurs. I suspect there are many similar inside thefts that occur more frequently than not. In fact - this same thing happened in my home town just a few weeks ago. Exact story - except the dealer was not disclosed.

The woman at St. Vincent's was ultimately caught when the flood of drugs were tracked back to St. Vincent's outpatient clinic by the drug task force. St Vincent's hospital apologized for the flaws in teir system which lead to the stolen drugs going unnoticed by their management.

So the question lingers. With SO many pills being stolen - why was St. Vincent's not aware that they were even missing? This is even with the tough laws mandating tight controls on this class of drugs.

Hint- there are bar codes on pills - so small you cannot see them. This is how they are counted and tracked in the manufacturing/distribution process. They need to swipe these little products just as we do other items when they are sold. Inventory management. Pills are NO different.

I sure have a few colleagues that need to call them right away to fix this
incredible flaw in their systems and processes.