Broward Inspector General: Medical Examiner Grossly Mishandled Narcotic Pills

More than 3,600 narcotic pills have gone missing from the Broward County Medical Examiner's office and have likely entered the local pain pill black market, according to a report from the county's Office of the Inspector General.

The report finds that the supervising staff grossly mismanaged medications, failing to properly secure, catalog or destroy the pills.

According to the report, witnesses told OIG that Medical Legal Investigator Supervisor, Linda Krivjanik, had been seen sorting through evidence bags and pouring pills into her hands as well as shredding evidence inventory forms.

ME employees also told OIG that the office's lack of professionalism was a "joke," calling internal controls "loosey goosey" and the medication cataloging as a "free for all."

The report states OIG investigators found garbage bags full of pain medication in Krivjanik's office and throughout the facility. She has since been fired.

The report cites that 3,600 pills, including over 2,100 oxycodone and over 150 hydrocodone, are missing.

But due to the total lack of paper trail on any pill inventory, OIG says the total is likely much higher. "The haphazard manner in which the ME inventoried and maintained medications has made it impossible to determine the number of medications that have gone missing."

In addition to Krivjanik's termination, the ME office has hired a consultant to review and improve how they handle controlled substances. The report includes an outlined new procedure for all pills received.

When medications are thought to be relevant to a death, the ME is to lock the pills in an evidence box located within the morgue cooler. The pills are assigned a bar code and case number, travel with the body, and are inventoried at several stages in the process, according to the report.

The OIG report concludes, "In the age of burgeoning 'pill mills,' the failure to account for thousands of pills of controlled substances represents a public safety concern for all Broward residents."

Comments

[edgySF]

08:10 AM on 02/07/2012

wow. maybe she (Linda Krivjanik) herself developed some sort of drug problem??

[Jtt]

09:53 PM on 02/06/2012

Poor people must not have access to the same fun drugs as the wealthy without paying full fun doctor dealer price.

[coussey]

05:54 PM on 02/06/2012

IF you think the Broward OIG's office is a joke...let me tell you this about the Dade OIG office.
There is a guy in the OIG's Miami office that did nothing with a 5 MILLION DOLLAR Medicare fraud case that people worked on for 3 years...so those people go free, and keep all of our tax dollars.
He was assigned to a task force and let the case sit until it was too old to do anything with.
I have no doubts he was paid off by the people he was investigating, or just a plain loser, but all that money and time has now given the people that were doing the Medicare fraud, all the money they want and more than that a sense of empowerment.

[HotheadPaisen]

09:18 AM on 02/07/2012

Well we've got the guy who ran the biggest Medicare fraud case in the history of our country elected to be Governor...
These people prove crime DOES pay, and pays BIG.