BOSTON, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A former registered nurse who worked at various times at the V.A. Medical Center in Bedford, the Somerville Hospital and the Metro West Medical Center – Framingham was sentenced today in federal court for tampering with a consumer product, obtaining controlled substances by fraud, and making false statements, all in connection with the theft of narcotics from the V.A. Medical Center when she worked there.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Jeffrey G. Hughes, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Field Office of Veteran’s Affairs, Office of Inspector General; Mark Dragonetti, Resident Agent in Charge of the Federal Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigation in Boston; and John Duffey, Chief of the Bedford Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center Police, announced that MARGARET GIROUARD, age 40, of Merrimack, New Hampshire, formerly of Bedford, Massachusetts, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William G. Young to 5 years in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release during which time she will be prohibited from practicing as nurse.
On September 28, 2006, GIROUARD was convicted by a trial jury of one count of tampering with a consumer product. Earlier that month, GIROUARD pleaded guilty to the other ten counts in the Indictment charging her with 9 counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud, and 1 count of making false statements. Today’s sentence reflects both her trial conviction and guilty plea.
According to evidence presented during the trial and information provided to the Court at the plea hearing, GIROUARD was employed as a registered nurse for the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center (“VAMC”) in Bedford, Massachusetts from September 2001 to August 2002. During that time GIROUARD secretly removed a powerful narcotic from a number of pain patches by tampering with them and then attempting to conceal what she had done by returning the pain patches, unopened, to their packaging. In addition, GIROUARD stole numerous controlled substances, primarily pain medications, while employed at the hospital including, codeine, oxycodone, and fentanyl. GIROUARD falsely represented that she was administering the medications to patients when in fact she kept them for herself. GIROUARD’s actions deliberately circumvented hospital medication safeguards and potentially jeopardized patient health. If the tampered patches had not been discovered, and were instead used with patients, serious harm could have occurred.
Additionally, from November 29, 2003 until April 4, 2005, GIROUARD worked as a registered nurse for the Diversified Staffing Group of Natick, an agency that provides contract nursing. While an employee of Diversified Staffing, GIROUARD was placed at Metro West Medical Center – Framingham and Somerville Hospital. GIROUARD stole and consumed controlled substances, primarily pain medications, including hydromorphine, while placed at both hospitals.
Finally, GIROUARD also made false statements in her employment application for the Bedford VAMC, stating that she had not been fired from any job within the prior five years and that she did not have a drug problem nor any restrictions on her nursing license. In fact, in January 1998, GIROUARD had been fired from her position as an in-home nurse on suspicion that she had been taking some of her patient’s narcotic medications. GIROUARD was, at the time she applied to the Bedford VAMC, restricted by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing from handling narcotics. GIROUARD’s Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire nursing licenses have all been revoked or suspended.
Upon return of the guilty verdict last September, Judge Young ordered that GIROUARD be taken immediately into the custody of the U.S. Marshals where she has remained. She will now be turned over to the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The investigation was conducted by Veteran’s Affairs, Office of Inspector General and the Federal Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigation with assistance from the Bedford Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Kanwit in Sullivan’s Criminal Division.
U.S. Attorney
CONTACT: Samantha Martin of the U.S. Attorney’s office, +1-617-748-3139
Comments