LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) – Pikeville Medical Center has agreed to pay over $4 million in civil penalties after a significant diversion of opioids from its pharmacy.
According to the Department of Justice, a PMC pharmacy technician was able to divert more than 60,000 dosage units of oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone from PMC’s narcotics vault and Pyxis MedStations between Jan. 1, 2016, and Sept. 7, 2018. The drugs were then given to the technician’s husband to be sold in the community.
“The size of this fine shows how serious this situation is,” said agent Todd Scott, who leads the DEA’s Louisville division. “Hopefully, Pikeville Medical Center will do a better job in the future with their record keeping and the resulting harm inflicted on the community can be reversed.”
Former pharmacy technician Kayla Nicole White Perry and her husband, William Chad Perry, pled guilty to violating 21 U.S.C. § 846, conspiracy to distribute Schedule II controlled substances in 2020. Kayla was sentenced to 41 months and her husband was sentenced to 38 months.
“As the opioid crisis continues to plague communities in Kentucky, hospitals like PMC have a responsibility and critical role to play. They must ensure that controlled substances are carefully tracked and protected against theft and loss, so that these drugs are not diverted for illegal uses,” said Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “My office will continue to seek appropriate civil penalties from healthcare providers who are careless with their recordkeeping and fail to provide effective safeguards against drug diversion.”
Settlement documents allege poor recordkeeping, like failing to maintain accurate inventories and dispensing records for Schedule II controlled substances allowed the pharmacy technician and her husband to divert so many doses.
In addition to the $4.39 million in penalties, the Pikeville Medical Center has agreed to the following additional security measures.
- Permitting DEA personnel to enter its registered location at any time during regular business hours without an administrative inspection warrant, and without prior notification to PMC, to verify compliance with the Memorandum of Agreement;
- Conducting an inventory of select controlled substances every six months and providing the results to DEA;
- Investigating and documenting any concerns about diversion, employee theft, or significant loss of controlled substances;
- Reporting suspicious controlled substance incidents to DEA on a quarterly basis; and
- Providing mandatory training on federal laws and regulations pertaining to controlled substances for all employees and contract personnel who have access to controlled substances.
“We have taken multiple steps and invested in new technology to better detect and prevent medication diversion in our facility,” a hospital statement said. “Pikeville Medical Center and our current leadership is committed to being the provider and employer of choice for healthcare in the southeastern Kentucky community by providing quality care to our patients.”
The Department of Justice said PMC cooperated with the DEA’s investigation and self-reported the diversion, saying PMC took substantial steps to address its deficiencies in its handling of controlled substances before the settlement was entered.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.