Press Room | Opioid Epidemic

When most people imagine inspections from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they might think of bureaucrats with clipboards scouring baby formula factories for unkempt equipment and rat droppings. But they probably don’t know that the FDA has another group of investigators who carry firearms and have the authority to arrest.

While staffing challenges mean health leaders may have to shift priorities and resources, one area where we shouldn’t scale back is in our efforts to mitigate health care drug diversion.

Drug diversion is a serious matter. However, convincing nurses is challenging because the problem is substantially underestimated, undetected, and underreported, according to Kimberly New, BSN, RN, JD, a specialist in controlled substance security and regulatory compliance at Diversion Specialists in Chicago, Illinois. Common drug diversion outcomes include damaged careers, civil and criminal penalties, infectious disease outbreaks, severe patient harm, and even death.

Two Chicago pharmacy technicians stole more than 56,000 tablets of hydrocodone—an opioid painkiller—over a 26-month period from 2015 to 2017. The technicians manipulated the pharmacy’s inventory system, falsifying records to make it look like the hydrocodone tablets either had not been received from the distributor or had already been dispensed to patients.

Health care compliance analytics can be used to roll out institution-wide training and education programs to deter sloppy or nefarious behavior related to controlled substances.