Advertise with Googlier.com Michelle Murphy – Connecticut Health Investigative Team https://c-hit.org In-depth Journalism on Issues of Health and Safety Fri, 23 Dec 2016 16:39:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.1 State Disciplines Six Nurses https://c-hit.org/2016/12/23/state-disciplines-six-nurses/ Fri, 23 Dec 2016 16:39:28 +0000 http://c-hit.org?p=88350 The state Board of Examiners for Nursing disciplined six nurses this week, including several cases of nurses who abused drugs or alcohol.

On Wednesday, the board revoked the license of Michelle Murphy, a registered nurse from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, for violating an earlier probation by not submitting drug test results to the state Department of Public Health, records show. In April, the board had placed her on probation for two years based on findings that she took the painkillers fentanyl and Dilaudid for her own use and abused controlled substances to excess, records show.

The board also revoked the license of licensed practical nurse Adam Burr of New Britain, who was intoxicated while working for PSA Healthcare of Plainville doing care in a patient’s home, state records show.

The board found that Burr’s abuse of alcohol and an emotional disorder or mental illness he has suffered from since 2013 were affecting his ability to practice nursing.

The board also revoked the license of RN Enid Gonzalez of Bridgeport for taking personal and confidential items from the home of a patient in 2014 while working as a visiting nurse for Hartford Healthcare at Home in Norwich, records show. The records do not indicate what the items were.

The board suspended the license of Mary K. Field, an RN from Burlington, with records showing she tested positive for codeine in September and Oxycodone in November while on probation.

Field has been disciplined by the board previously. In November 2015, the board found she had abused the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in violation of an earlier probation. In 2015, she was placed on a four-year probation, with records showing she had used hydrocodone, an opioid painkiller, in excess in 2013.

This past August, the board accepted her testimony that she had regularly attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings and reinstated her license. But now, records show, she has tested positive for drugs again, so her license was suspended.

Also on Wednesday, the board suspended the license of Hester E. Munyon, an RN from Norwalk, with DPH officials saying in records that her abuse of alcohol and cocaine poses a “clear and immediate danger” to the public.

In April 2015, she was hospitalized for alcohol detoxification and was diagnosed with several alcohol use disorder and severe cocaine use disorder, records show.

In October 2015, Munyon pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless endangerment and received a suspended prison sentence of one year, records show. DPH has no documentation that she has undergone substance abuse treatment from this August to the present, so it recommended her suspension.

The board reprimanded the license of Cherry Cuizon, an RN from Madison, for failing to disclose on her Connecticut license renewal form that she had been disciplined in California in 2014. Records show that she surrendered her California license for inappropriately keeping hypodermic needles and the anti-nausea drug Zofran in her purse while working as a nurse there. She also failed to adequately account for controlled substances and made false statements in medical records about dangerous drugs, records show.

The board also placed Cuizon on probation until she completes courses on maintaining medical records and preventing medical errors.

C-HIT writer Bonnie Phillips contributed to this story.

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State Disciplines Five Nurses For Misconduct https://c-hit.org/2016/08/24/state-disciplines-five-nurses-for-misconduct/ Wed, 24 Aug 2016 14:52:55 +0000 http://c-hit.org?p=63019 The state Board of Examiners for Nursing today disciplined five nurses for misconduct, including four whose cases involved drugs or alcohol.

After a hearing today, the board revoked the license of Danielle Dragon, a licensed practical nurse from Bristol, who was accused of crushing a pill that she said was Oxycodone but which was tested and found to be Tylenol.

In April, the board had placed her license on probation for one year, and earlier this month, it had suspended her license while she awaited the hearing because, records show, she has failed to submit to drug tests.

Dragon did not attend the hearing, so the board deemed that she had admitted to the charges against her.

The board voted to suspend the license of Cherish Ostrosky, a registered nurse from Oxford, who was arrested during a traffic stop in Monroe May 19, record show. She told the police that she had used crack cocaine this year, state records show.

She was found in possession of marijuana, Suboxone in an over-the-counter pill bottle, cocaine paraphernalia and synthetic urine, the summary of charges against her said. Suboxone is used to treat people addicted to painkillers.

Concluding that her practice as a nurse presents a “clear and immediate danger” to the public, the board suspended her license pending a full hearing, which is set for Sept. 21.

The board also suspended the license of Megan Surprenant, an LPN from the Taftville section of Norwich, after concluding she, too, posed a clear and immediate danger to the public.

State records show that between December 2015 and March 2016, Surprenant failed to document the administration of two painkillers – Oxycodone and Tramadol – and an anti-anxiety drug, Lorazepam, to patients while working as a nurse at Orchard Grove Specialty Care Center in Uncasville. State Department of Public Health officials recommended the suspension, saying they have not been able to reach her.

The board also said Michelle Murphy, an RN from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, posed a danger to the public and suspended her license.

Her license was placed on probation in April for two years based on findings that she took the painkillers fentanyl and Dilaudid for her own use and abused controlled substances to excess, DPH records show. By July, she had violated that probation because she had not submitted any drug test results, records show.

The board also reprimanded the Connecticut RN license of Linda M. Swanson of Royal Palm Beach, Florida. Records show that Swanson was placed on probation in Florida for having failed to adequately assess and document the treatment of a patient in alcohol withdrawal in March 2014.

Swanson chose not to contest the charges in Connecticut and signed a consent order that was approved by the board.

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Nursing Board Disciplines 13 Nurses https://c-hit.org/2016/05/20/nursing-board-disciplines-13-nurses/ https://c-hit.org/2016/05/20/nursing-board-disciplines-13-nurses/#comments Fri, 20 May 2016 13:03:01 +0000 http://c-hit.org?p=41811 The Board of Examiners for Nursing has recently disciplined 13 nurses, and in nearly all of the cases, the nurses were abusing drugs or alcohol that affected their ability to practice.

After a hearing this week, the board reinstated the license of Todd Stockheimer, a registered nurse who had been working for the Bristol-Myers Squibb drug company in Wallingford before being convicted of drug possession. The board also placed his license on probation for four years.

State records show that Stockheimer had abused opioid painkillers after having back surgery in 2007 and that he received many of his prescriptions from a co-worker, Dr. Robert Hindes. In an unusual twist, Stockheimer sued Hindes for negligence, blaming his drug dependency on the doctor, and won a $3.5 million judgment, the Connecticut Law Tribune reported.

Stockheimer told the board his addictions lead him into “horrible situation,” but he is maintaining his sobriety.

“I can never let that happen again,’’ he said.

This week the board also took the following action:

• Revoked the license of Rachel Brazee, an R.N. from Warren. Records show that while working at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport in 2015, she could not perform procedures, including dialysis, because of hand or body tremors or anxiety. She also abused marijuana, records show.

• Revoked the Connecticut license of Shawna Hartle, an R.N. from Preston, who was disciplined by Texas officials in 2015 for using morphine, marijuana, alcohol and amphetamines, records show.

• Revoked the license of Erin Arndt, an R.N. from Wellington, Colorado, who was disciplined by Colorado officials in 2014 after admitting she stole narcotics for her own use, records show. She also failed to disclose to Connecticut officials that she had been disciplined by Minnesota and Washington state officials, records show.

• Revoked the license of Katherine Mezzi, a licensed practical nurse from Wallingford, after concluding that from 2012 to 2015, she abused alcohol and narcotics, including cocaine, records show.

• Revoked the license of Matthew Hopkins, an R.N. from Andover, because he had violated an earlier probation by failing to go to therapy, records show. In 2015, his license was placed on probation for four years because he abused Suboxone or Dilaudid, records show.

On Wednesday, the board also placed the nursing license of Paul Pitney, an R.N. from Milford, on probation for one year. In 2014, while working at a Fairfield nursing home, Pitney took oxycodone and morphine and failed to administer pain medication as ordered, state records show.

The board also summarily suspended the license of Holly Cocchiola, an L.P.N. from Bethlehem, who tested positive for heroin after a car accident on Feb. 14, state records show. She was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, evading responsibility and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, records show. In 2001, her license was placed on a three-year probation because of substance abuse and because she forged prescriptions for the painkiller Percocet, state records show.

The board withdrew charges of abusing heroin or cocaine against Debra Leonard, an R.N. from New Fairfield, because she voluntarily surrendered her license. Records show she was working at a Hamden nursing home in 2015 when she was accused of taking a controlled substance and failing to accurately record a narcotics count, records show.

The board disciplined five nurses in April, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

The board revoked the license of Gregory Klimaytis, an R.N. from Redding, because records show he violated the terms of a four-year probation imposed in 2013 by failing drug tests three times.

The license of Kathryn Jaworski, an L.P.N. from Manchester, was placed on probation for four years because she tested positive for the painkiller Tramadol in October 2015. The positive test was a violation of an existing four-year probation agreement.

The board also placed the license of R.N. Michelle Murphy of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts on probation for two years. While working as an R.N. at Hartford Hospital in February 2015, she was accused of taking Fentanyl and Dilaudid, two powerful painkillers, for her personal use and falsifying reports. At a hearing, Murphy denied taking the drugs but said she initially admitted doing so because two drug control agents who came to home intimidated her, records show.

A six-month probation was given to R.N. Jasmine Rivera Gonzalez of Beacon Falls. State records show that while working at Bridgeport Hospital, she failed to document the waste of controlled substances in 2014.

State records show that the board placed the license of Danielle Dragon, an L.P.N. from Bristol, on probation for one year. She was accused of crushing a pill that she said was Oxycodone but was tested and found to be Tylenol, records show.

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