Nurse from Winchester will get jail time for diverting opioids at native hospital

A former nurse from Winchester was sentenced in federal court docket on Wednesday to serve three months in jail and one 12 months of supervised launch for diverting opioids from a Boston-area hospital. 

Andrea Falzano, 39, pleaded responsible to a few counts of unlawfully acquiring managed substances by fraud, deception, and subterfuge in August, in line with the workplace of Performing U.S. Legal professional for Massachusetts Joshua Levy. 

Prosecutors stated that beginning in Could 2019, Falzano used her place as a nurse in an emergency room at a Boston-area hospital to withdraw managed substances, together with morphine, fentanyl and hydromorphone, from a locked drug cupboard 412 occasions for 299 already-discharged sufferers over the course of 5 months. 

“Unfavourable drug assessments uncovered in the course of the investigation indicated that Falzano didn’t self-administer the medication that she stole from the hospital at which she was employed, regardless of stating in any other case to her employer and the Board of Registration in Nursing,” Levy’s workplace stated in a press release. “In statements to the Board, Falzano tried to reduce her conduct by calling her theft of managed substances an ‘remoted incident,’ which it was not.”

In a press release, Levy stated Falzano “took benefit of her place of belief” to steal medication from her employer.

“Our workplace is dedicated to combating the opioid epidemic on all fronts, together with the diversion of medical opioids by unethical well being care suppliers like Ms. Falzano,” Levy stated.