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A former Porter Regional Hospital nurse has been sentenced to one year of probation, after pleading guilty to one of the four charges filed against her in connection with her personal use of fentanyl–a powerful synthetic opioid–obtained from an automated dispenser at the hospital.

Allison Henry, 26, of Porter Township, pleaded guilty to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or deceit and was sentenced on Monday by Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer to 365 days in the Porter County Jail. Under a plea agreement with the Indiana Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Henry will serve all but one day of that sentence on formal probation.

Obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or deceit was entered against Henry as a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.

In exchange for Henry’s plea, the other three charges against her were dismissed: failure to make, keep, or furnish records; furnishing false or fraudulent information; and theft.

Other sentencing terms:

–Henry must be evaluated for substance abuse, comply with substance abuse treatment at a placement approved by probation, and undergo random drug testing.

–Henry “must cooperate” with proceedings involving her Indiana nursing license.

–And Henry must pay court costs and a fine of $500.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed by Kathy Franko, a diversion investigator with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, on Sept. 6, 2018, a registered nurse at Porter Regional Hospital discovered that Henry had removed one 100 mg. dose of fentanyl from the Pyxis MedStation–an automated dispenser from which nurses must enter their fingerprint and other information in order to obtain medications–ostensibly for one of his own assigned patients. When the nurse confronted Henry, Franko stated in her affidavit, Henry “reached into her pocket, removed a vial that contained liquid, and gave it to” him. It was later discovered that, one day earlier, on Sept. 5, 2018, Henry had also removed a dosage of fentanyl from “another patient not assigned to her.”

Later in the day on Sept. 6, at a meeting with the ICU director and others, Henry “admitted that she took the fentanyl for her own personal use,” Franko stated in her affidavit. “Henry said she replaced the fentanyl in the vial . . . with saline. Henry said she took home the fentanyl she stole on Sept. 5 and used it after her shift. Henry also admitted she diverted medications from a hospital in Maryland when she was a traveling nurse.”

According to the Pyxis MedStation, Henry in fact obtained two vials of fentanyl on Sept. 5 and the one on Sept. 6, Franko stated.

Hospital administration “did not offer Henry to submit to a urine drug screen since she admitted stealing the fentanyl for personal use and resigned her position,” Franko added.

On Sept. 10 hospital administration filed a formal complaint with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Franko was assigned to investigate the complaint.

Henry worked as a registered nurse at Porter Regional Hospital for only three days, beginning on Sept. 4, 2018, and resigning on Sept. 6.