Nurse accused of diverting nursing home patients' medications for personal use
A nurse is accused of taking prescription painkillers and medication for anxiety and panic disorders from 13 nursing home patients in Baldwin, North Huntingdon and McCandless.
Monica Blackwell, 41, of Pittsburgh’s Hill District, told the state attorney general’s agents that she took the medications for her own use, according to the criminal complaint filed Thursday with North Huntingdon District Judge Henry Moore.
Blackwell, who worked for a nursing agency, was charged with felony counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance by a person not registered to prescribe medication and identity theft, along with a misdemeanor count of refusing to keep required records of prescription medication.
Narcotics agent Brian Kosoglow detailed accounts of patients at the two care facilities where numerous painkillers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone were removed from their plastic containers but not recorded in an electronic medical records system as being given to the patients. In some cases, more doses of oxycodone were taken from a blister pack than were prescribed for the patient.
Blackwell allegedly was involved in narcotics discrepancies for eight patients at Vincentian Home, a McCandless retirement community, where she worked from mid-November through early December as an agency nurse, according to the complaint.
At The Grove in North Huntingdon, Blackwell allegedly took at least 30 oxycodone tablets from blister packs for four patients in early January, but there was no documentation she gave them the pills, according to the complaint.
Blackwell is accused of forging a letter from a UPMC Behavioral Health doctor in order to return to her nursing job with Baldwin Health Center, which she did through early March, according to the complaint. Baldwin Health Center officials said patients had complained they did not receive their pain pills when Blackwell was their nurse, the complaint stated.
Blackwell was arraigned before Moore and released on her own recognizance pending a preliminary hearing Aug. 9.
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
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