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A former registered nurse at the Geisinger Medical Center near Danville has been placed on a year’s probation for diverting prescription opioids for her personal use over a five-month period.
Akeya Lee Whitenight, 36, of Sunbury, was sentenced Friday after she pleaded guilty in Montour County Court to a charge of receiving stolen property.
She was charged last October by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office after it received a report from Geisinger’s diversion investigation team.
The report stated a pharmacist analyst discovered Whitenight in January 2020 had dispensed 165 oxycodone tablets, compared with 37 by the next highest dispenser.
A review of a software analytic system used to track inventory and identify possible drug diversion revealed medications being held for extended periods of time, doses wasted, medications pulled without orders and an increased rate of dispensing.
Narcotics including oxycodone, syringes, an empty hypodermic needle and catheters were among items found in her locker on Feb. 13, 2020, the charges stated.
Numerous discrepancies were identified in a Geisinger audit of narcotics dispensing records and documentation related to Whitenight’s controlled substances activity, the arrest affidavit stated.
They included dispensing narcotics without a written order, failure to document the patient received the drug as ordered and administering drugs when patients were documented as being asleep or in surgery, the charges stated.
Drugs Whitenight is accused of diverting are oxycodone, fentanyl, hydromorphone, tramadol and pregabalin.