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A former registered nurse at Blount Memorial Hospital falsified records, stole controlled substances and was intoxicated while on duty, according to public records from the Tennessee Department of Health.
The allegations are detailed in an order of summary suspension from the Tennessee Board of Nursing, available on the Department of Health’s website.
The board suspended M. Summitt’s nursing license July 20 following a public hearing reviewing a number of findings from Blount Memorial’s management.
A social media account with the same name as Summitt listed the person as working as an operating room registered nurse at Blount Memorial Outpatient Surgery since February 2007.
The order of suspension from the Board of Nursing says the suspension will be in effect “pending proceedings for the formal discipline of Respondent’s (Summitt’s) license.”
Efforts to reach Summitt and Blount Memorial were unsuccessful Wednesday. Summitt did not respond to a Facebook Messenger inquiry.
According to the suspension order from the Tennessee Department of Health:
• At least four patients on or around April 30 had their records falsified.
• The patients’ records were altered to include orders for controlled substances including morphine, fentanyl and hydromorphone — drugs that those patients did not require, and which they did not receive.
• The two nurse practitioners indicated as having made these orders denied writing them. Summitt was the only nurse who documented withdrawing and administering the narcotics to the patients after the orders were fraudulently entered.
• The next day, on or around May 1, Blount Memorial management, suspecting Summitt of diverting the substances, asked her to submit to a urine drug test. Summitt tested positive for morphine, hydromorphone, meperidine and fentanyl.
• Summitt was not found to have a prescription for any of the substances at the time of the screening.
• Summitt was also found to have a 0.091 blood alcohol content while on duty. Tennessee state law considers a person “under in the influence” when driving at a blood alcohol content level of 0.08 percent or more.
Other discrepancies were discovered from on or about April 30.
Summit was found to have withdrawn various injectable controlled substances for a patient who did not have a physician’s order for the medications. Those medications were not returned for more than seven hours.
In another instance, Summitt documented administering 2 milligrams of morphine to a patient who did not have an intravenous line.
On at least one occasion, Summitt reported administering controlled substances before she actually withdrew the medication.
The Tennessee Board of Nursing said its preliminary findings of misconduct were “so severe that it imperatively requires emergency action in order to protect the public health, safety, and welfare prior to the initiation of formal disciplinary charges.”
Summitt has been ordered to cease and desist practicing in the state of Tennessee. Her privilege to work in other states also has been voided.