Nurse pleads guilty Togus employee stole narcotic drugs

BANGOR – A former nurse at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Togus has pleaded guilty to four counts related to taking narcotics from the hospital’s supply.

Joanne Klina-Burns, 50, waived indictment Wednesday and pleaded guilty to acquiring drugs by deception, adulteration of drugs, taking drugs not prescribed to her and making material false statements to the federal government through VA hospital records.

She faces a possible maximum penalty of 11 years in prison, $700,000 in fines or both.

Klina-Burns was released on $10,000 unsecured bond with conditions.

The hearing took place at U.S. District Court in Bangor. U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal presided.

According to a court document, Klina-Burns began working at Togus in September 1998. Within two weeks of her employment, staff noticed irregularities in narcotics counts, a procedure that occurred at the beginning and end of every shift.

Drugs missing or tampered with included liquid hydromorphone, also known as Dilaudid; OxyContin pills, Percocet tablets and Demerol. At various times, Klina-Burns wrote in the charts of various patients that they had requested the painkillers when, in fact, they had not, according to court papers.

Klina-Burns reportedly had been abusing prescription drugs for 11 years prior to her Togus employment and had lost at least one job because of the activity, according to information brought out at the hearing.

When confronted, she admitted the illegal activity and resigned immediately on Jan. 11, 1999.

Divorced with two daughters, Klina-Burns is represented by attorney Walter Mckee of Augusta.

Klina-Burns answered the judge’s questions in a clear, unwavering voice.

A 1971 graduate of the Bryn Mawr School of Nursing in Pennsylvania, Klina-Burns’ nursing license has been suspended in Pennsylvania and Delaware, according to court papers. Her attorney said she still has a conditional license in Pennsylvania, however. She is enrolled in a substance-abuse program for health care professionals in Pennsylvania, according to information relayed in court.

Details of the offenses relayed in court documents revealed that nurses at Togus are trained to keep close, daily inventories of the narcotics cabinet on Unit 3 North, where Klina-Burns worked.

Nurses use a green sheet called a Controlled Substance Administration Record to record the name of each patient to whom a drug was administered, the date and time the drug was removed from the cabinet and other information. Similar sheets are located in each patient’s chart.

On Oct. 16, 1998, two weeks after Klina-Burns began working at Togus, nurses auditing the narcotics cabinet discovered protective caps were missing from four vials of liquid hydromorphone. The vials were turned over to Togus police. Further inspection revealed what appeared to be puncture holes in the caps, the protective bands were missing and the level of fluid was uneven in the vials, according to a court document.

On Oct. 23, 1998 it was discovered that protective seals on pre-measured syringes of morphine sulfate were torn or missing. Lab tests revealed the morphine sulfate had been removed from the syringes and replaced with saline solution.

In December, staff discovered Oxycodone tablets missing. In January, staff discovered Percocet tablets were missing and the green sheet for recording Percocet distribution to patients was missing.

Other irregularities followed.

An audit of Klina-Burns’ medical notes revealed at least 21 instances in which she had indicated on the green sheet she had administered Percocet, Demerol, Oxycodone or OxyContin to a patient when the patient either had denied receiving the medications, or it was not recorded in the patient’s chart or both, a court document states.

“All irregularities in narcotics counts ceased with her departure,” the document states.