Hogan v. Mississippi Bd. of Nursing, 55069
| Decision Date | 03 October 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 55069,55069 |
| Citation | 457 So.2d 931 |
| Parties | Patricia R. HOGAN v. MISSISSIPPI BOARD OF NURSING. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Charles I. Knauss, Jr., Gilmer & Jones, Jackson, for appellant.
Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen. by Carolyn B. Mills, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before BOWLING, DAN M. LEE and PRATHER, JJ.
The appellant, Patricia R. Hogan, is a certified registered nurse anesthetist (C.R.N.A.). Ms. Hogan was employed by the Lawrence County Hospital until an audit in 1981 revealed that a substantial quantity of controlled narcotics signed out to Ms. Hogan were unaccounted for as being either given to a patient, in her present inventory, or wasted. In a complaint by the Mississippi Board of Nursing Ms. Hogan was charged with seventeen (17) separate offenses constituting violations of Sec. 73-15-29(1)(h) of the Mississippi Code Annotated (Supp.1982). During a hearing upon the matter the Board dismissed all but five (5) of the charges of its own motion. Each of the remaining charges alleged the misappropriation of Demerol. At the conclusion of the hearing Ms. Hogan was found guilty on each of the five (5) charges in that she failed to reasonably account for Demerol. As a result, her license to practice as a registered nurse in the State of Mississippi was revoked. Following that decision, Hogan perfected an appeal to the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County. The chancellor affirmed the decision of the Board and Hogan now brings this appeal.
The charges against Ms. Hogan and the findings of the Board of Nursing are as follows:
Charge: That from April, 1981, until August 10, 1981, you misappropriated Demerol placed in your custody for the use of patients at the Lawrence County Hospital, Monticello, Mississippi.
Finding: The Board found you guilty in that you failed to account for twenty-five 100 mg. ampules of Demerol, as evidenced by pharmacy sheet # 104643 coupled with your signature as having received the drugs. Further, that pharmacy sheet # 104357 indicates thirteen Demerol 100 mg. ampules unaccounted for with your signature as having received twenty-five ampules.
Charge: That you misappropriated Demerol in that on or about 4/6/81 from Floor Station # 2 you received two 100 mg. ampules of Demerol for patient Johnny Hartzog. On 4/8/81 you also signed out 50 mg. of Demerol from the anesthesia narcotic supply for this patient. On the anesthesia record dated 4/7/81 you recorded a total of 125 mg. of Demerol as administered to Hartzog.
Finding: The Board found you guilty in that you did not reasonably account for the narcotics missing in the instance as charged.
Charge: That you misappropriated Demerol in that on or about 4/9/81 from Floor Station # 1 you received 50 mg. of Demerol for surgery on 4/10/81; however, this Demerol was not charted as given to either of two patients who had surgery on 4/10/81.
Finding: The Board found you guilty in that you did not reasonably account for the narcotics missing in the instance as charged.
Charge: That you misappropriated Demerol in that on or about 4/10/81 you signed out one 50 mg. ampule of Demerol from the anesthesia narcotic supply to patient Bobby Hall. On the same date you signed out from Floor Station # 2 one 100 mg. ampule and one 50 mg. ampule of Demerol for this patient. However, you recorded on the anesthesia records that you administered only 75 mg. of Demerol to Hall.
Finding: The Board found you guilty in that you did not reasonably account for the narcotics missing in the instance as charged.
Charge: That you misappropriated Demerol in that on or about 4/11/81 you signed out 50 mg. of Demerol from the anesthesia narcotic supply for patient Eugene Daughdrill; however, no Demerol is charted as given on the anesthesia record.
Finding: The Board found you guilty in that you did not reasonably account for the narcotics missing in the instance as charged.
(All Emphasis Added)
All of the charges stem from Mrs. Hogan's role as the certified nurse anesthetist for the Lawrence County Hospital in Monticello, Mississippi. Her job involved anesthesizing surgery patients before and during surgery. As a necessary component to that role, Ms. Hogan administered narcotics to surgery patients. She was generally responsible for the type and amount of narcotic a surgery patient was to receive. The Lawrence County Hospital distributed narcotics through its head pharmacist, Phil Martin. Martin testified that the procedure for dispensing narcotics required the nurse or physician receiving the narcotics to sign their name at the top of a pharmacy sheet. The narcotics typically came in a box of 20 or 25 ampules. The type of drug issued was labeled across the top of the pharmacy sheet. The pharmacy sheet contained a corresponding number of parallel ruled lines for the person who checked out the drugs to record the date, time, patient, physician, dose and signature of the person administering the drugs. When all 20 or 25 lines were filled out, the pharmacy sheet could be returned to Phil Martin and he would then issue another box of the narcotics with a blank pharmacy sheet. Martin did not always require that a completed pharmacy sheet be returned to him before he issued more narcotics because to do so would have required a nurse to completely exhaust her supply before getting any more. As a result, Martin testified that it was possible that he would dispense narcotics to someone who already had some checked out. He stated that he did not regularly allow more than two boxes of a narcotic to be checked out before a pharmacy sheet was returned. Martin later testified that he had been reprimanded by the State Pharmacy Board for dispensing narcotics without requiring the person he issued the narcotics to first sign a pharmacy sheet. He admits that he was not conscientious in his work and in his accounting for narcotics.
Martin further testified that any drug remaining in an ampule after part of it had been administered to a patient was to be "wasted." All waste of narcotics was to be reported to the pharmacy on a "waste sheet." Rosemary Brister, Director of Nurses at Lawrence County Hospital, testified that she told Ms. Hogan of the hospital's policy on waste of narcotics. Catherine Lambert, the operating room supervisor, testified that in May, 1981, Ms. Brister asked her to give waste report sheets to Ms. Hogan.
Ms. Hogan's testimony was somewhat different. She testified that no one had ever said anything to her about waste procedures. She stated that she wasted narcotics by putting the unused amount in a syringe and dropping the syringe in an empty i.v. bottle. She testified that in all her work experience she had never been required to sign a separate sheet to account for waste. She further testified that there were times when she found her narcotic closet and anesthesia cart unlocked.
Ms. Hogan's first assignment of error is that the chancery court erred in upholding the decision of the Mississippi Board of Nursing in that she was charged with misappropriation of controlled substances and the findings of the Board indicate only that she had failed to reasonably account for those substances. Her position is that the failure to account is not tantamount to misappropriation. We find this argument persuasive.
The applicable statute is Sec. 73-15-29(1)(h) Miss. Code Ann. (Supp.1982). That provision reads as follows:
(1) The board shall have power to revoke, suspend or refuse to renew any license issued by the board, or to deny an application for a license, or to fine, place on probation and/or discipline a licensee in any manner specified in this chapter, upon proof that such person:
(h) Is addicted to or dependent on alcohol or other habit forming drugs or is a habitual user of narcotics, barbituates, amphetamines, hallucinogins or other drugs having similar effect, or has...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Ongom v. Dept. of Health
... ... of the evidence in an administrative hearing, Alice Ongom's nursing assistant's registration was suspended for alleged abuse of a patient ... quasi-criminal in nature is clear and convincing evidence."); Hogan v. Miss. Bd. of Nursing, ... Page 1032 ... 457 So.2d 931, 934 ... ...
-
Nguyen v. STATE HEALTH MED. QUALITY ASSUR.
...to discipline. See Miss. State Bd. of Nursing v. Wilson, 624 So.2d 485 (Miss. 1993) (crime of false pretenses); Hogan v. Miss. Bd. of Nursing, 457 So.2d 931, 934 (Miss. 1984) (misappropriation of narcotics); Levi v. Miss. State Bar, 436 So.2d 781, 783 (Miss.1983) (fraud and equivalent forms......
-
Molden v. MISS. STATE DEPT. OF HEALTH, 97-CC-00454-SCT.
...So.2d 805, 808 (Miss.1991); State Bd. of Psychological Exam'rs v. Hosford, 508 So.2d 1049, 1054 (Miss.1987); Hogan v. Mississippi Bd. of Nursing, 457 So.2d 931, 934 (Miss. 1984)). "On judicial review, the Chancery Court does not proceed de novo, nor does this Court. Rather, the disciplinary......
-
Mississippi State Bd. of Psychological Examiners v. Hosford
...have held that disciplinary charges against a professional must be proved by clear and convincing evidence. Hogan v. Mississippi Board of Nursing, 457 So.2d 931, 934 (Miss.1984); Levi v. Mississippi State Bar, 436 So.2d 781, 783 (Miss.1983); this burden of proof rule applies as well to disc......