An investigation has discovered Georgia’s most fragile inhabitants – the ailing and ailing – could also be in imminent hazard resulting from a tradition of secrecy and questionable techniques employed by the state’s regulatory board for nurses, which stands accused of performing to maintain drug-addled well being employees employed whereas maintaining the general public at midnight.

A report revealed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution alleges cases of still-employed, drug-abusing nurses botching sufferers’ drugs, administering unauthorized opioids and tampering with medical provides to realize a repair.

The information outlet’s investigation alludes to the secrecy surrounding the best way the Board of Nursing handles it’s disciplinary instances and it’s lack of document maintaining. According to AJC.com, many opioid-addicted nurses are provided second and third probabilities regardless of having relapsed, with the general public shielded from info pertaining to a nurse’s drug historical past.

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“We have boards to protect the public, not to be soft touches,” state Rep. Sharon Cooper, chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services committee and a registered nurse, informed AJC.com. “I know how bad the drug problem is. And so I really think that the first priority should be to the patient’s protection.”

Cooper alleges that the board is performing to uphold the fame of the career, quite than defend the general public. But Janice Izlar, president of the 13-member board, counters that the secrecy surrounding the panel’s disciplinary actions truly assists the investigative course of and permits for the monitoring of accused nurses, quite than getting tied up in public authorized battles whereas making an attempt to revoke licenses.

Instead, the board says it presents offending nurses personal disciplinary orders. In 2017, 54 p.c of the 333 disciplinary orders issued have been personal. Izlar didn’t reveal what number of orders have been opioid-related.

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“Many times, the nurse does not want their name on a public Board of Nursing website that there has been discipline,” Izlar informed AJC.com. “And so they will accept the order and actually get under monitoring and under appropriate care that has been determined by their physician. And they will actually sign this order much quicker, and they will go ahead and get into the programs and into monitoring much quicker.”

But as soon as the personal orders — which embody submitting to drug screens, notifying employers and avoiding jobs with entry to medication — expire, the offending nurse’s information are hid.  And whereas Izlar insists that nurses who’re caught working whereas impaired or diverting medication can’t get personal orders, AJC.com reported there isn’t any method to confirm that coverage.

“I’m sorry if some nurse gets her license suspended and that’s her livelihood,” Cooper informed AJC.com. “But if she’s in the position of putting patients at risk, then so be it.”