An investigation in late 2021 revealed a local hospice center not only kept but also relabeled the medications of deceased patients.
According to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services, Heart to Heart Hospice “failed to ensure patients received medications only from a pharmacy, failed to ensure medications were labeled correctly, failed to ensure medications were disposed of properly, and failed to ensure discrepancies for controlled drugs were immediately investigated by the pharmacist and administrator.”
Surveyors on Oct. 22, 2021 noticed a cabinet in the clinical manager’s office that had multiple medications, including morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl, that had dead patients names on them.
When asked why someone had tampered with the labels, one employee said the medications needed to be destroyed. According to the report, managers and administrators said they didn’t know why the medications hadn’t been destroyed at the patients’ homes.
Records indicate that since the investigation, employees have been drug tested and retrained.
The report states two patient care managers resigned, the executive director was terminated and they’ve been reported to the state attorney general.
