Health officials in at least three states are investigating a travel nurse suspected of tampering with and potentially contaminating vials and syringes of opioid painkillers in two hospitals, then returning the vials to medication cabinets where they could be unknowingly given to patients.
One hundred patients who may have been exposed to contaminated syringes last year at Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee were urged to get tested for hepatitis and HIV, according to state documents obtained by KHN through a public records request.
The documents also reveal that Raleigh General Hospital in West Virginia this year gave vials to law enforcement to test for evidence of tampering. Those results haven’t been made public.
