Siciliano said she worked between 50 to 60 hours a week before the surge but more than 80 hours during it, the document states. Investigators with the OPLC held a meeting with hospital staff on March 8, during which staff explained that the spike in critically ill COVID-19 patients during the winter surge resulted in controlled-substance procedures not being enforced, according to the OPLC document reinstating Siciliano's license. Over the next few months, the hospital submitted at least three updated loss-of-controlled substance forms that by April 14 indicated a cumulative amount of lost/unaccounted-for fentanyl solution totaling 583 bags, or 7.7 gallons, all attributable to the period between September and January, according to OPLC documents. 1 and reported it to the board of pharmacy the following day. In response to questions emailed to Siciliano, her lawyer, Rick Fradette, said she became aware of the theft of fentanyl on Feb. 2, the OPLC received a loss-of-controlled-substance form and letter from the hospital, indicating there were 23 bags, or 1,150 milliliters, of fentanyl solution that had been stolen, but that it expected those numbers to increase due to an ongoing internal investigation, the documents state. 4, the OPLC received complaints about the theft of fentanyl from the ICU, according to documents from that office. In that email, she said she had given 12 bags of fentanyl to a friend, the document states. She said in an email to an OPLC investigator that the drugs were for her own use as a way of coping with the stress of working during the pandemic, but that representation differs from what she provided to the hospital in a separate email, according to an OPLC document. 9 states she stole 12 bags of fentanyl in October, 50 to 100 bags in November, about 100 bags in December and 200 bags in January. Towle died in March.Ī preliminary agreement not to practice that she signed Feb. 4, Alexandra Towle, a nurse in the hospital's ICU, self-reported that she had stolen fentanyl from Cheshire Medical Center, according to OPLC documents. But not all the lost fentanyl can be attributed to that theft, according to the documents, which state that hospital staff said a winter surge of COVID-19 also impacted recordkeeping related to fentanyl and other drugs.Īround Feb. Since September, more than 7 1/2 gallons of fentanyl solution from Cheshire Medical's Intensive Care Unit have gone unaccounted for, much of which was stolen by the nurse, the suspension documents state. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and is highly addictive and dangerous when used illicitly, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Rather, the documents note the supervisory nature of their roles at the hospital and their responsibilities for safeguarding controlled substances used there.įentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is used in the medical field for sedation and pain relief.
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But according to the OPLC, neither Matthews nor Siciliano, whose license has since been reinstated, have been implicated in the theft. It issued the emergency suspensions of Pharmacist-in-Charge and Director of Pharmacy Melissa Siciliano and Pharmacist Richard Crowe on March 30.ĭocuments ordering the suspensions state that hundreds of bags of fentanyl solution were stolen by a nurse. The state's medical licensing authority, which oversees the New Hampshire boards of pharmacy and nursing, issued the emergency suspension of Chief Nursing Officer Amy Matthews on May 26.
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Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. 4-State boards recently suspended the licenses of Cheshire Medical Center's chief nursing officer and two other personnel after gallons of fentanyl solution went missing from the Keene hospital, according to the N.H.
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