This post was originally published on this site

She was supposed to be monitoring staffing levels, not filling Oxycodone prescriptions for patients and then using them for her own pain.

Nassau County Sheriff’s Office arrested 61-year-old K. Kirby Wednesday for obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

“Several times she went to the pharmacy to check out pills,” Bill Leeper, Nassau County Sheriff, said.

Leeper said Kirby’s role at Baptist Health Nassau was administrative. She was in charge of monitoring staffing levels and was supposed to have had little interaction with patients, which is what drew suspicion from employees.

“Reviewing video surveillance, she was not going to their room to give that medication,” Leeper said.

From Jan. to Oct. of last year, the sheriff’s office said on multiple occasions Kirby stopped by the pharmacy and signed out 134 oxycodone pills for patients and kept them for herself.

“She was using them for pain for back issues,” Leeper said. “She was getting pills from her physician and when she’d run out, she wouldn’t go back to her physician, because that may indicate she was addicted.”

Kirby was fired in Oct. at the start of the investigation.

“Unfortunately it’s a very common problem that we’re seeing right now,” DEA Special Agent Michael Mayer said.

This case is particularly of interest to the Jacksonville DEA as it involved a supervisor in a hospital who possibly abused prescription drugs set out for patients.

The DEA is suggesting state charges.

“If you’re consistently taking an opioid or pain pill three times a day for thirty days, then when you’re coming off of it, you’re naturally going to feel withdraws,”  Mental Health Therapist Tina Miller said.

Miller understands it doesn’t take long for someone to become addicted. Miller oversees the medication treatment program at Starting Point Behavioral Healthcare in Nassau.

The center is currently treating about 70 people there for some form of drug addiction. The center currently averages four new patients a week.

“I believe that when somebody comes to the realization that they may, or that there is a potential they could be addicted, to reach out for help immediately,” Miller said.

It appears this is an isolated incident with Kirby and did not involve any other hospital employees.

Kirby is out on bond.