Feds: Nurse at NJ hospital steals fentanyl 143 times in a month

🔻 Traveling nurse allegedly stole drugs
🔻Feds say NJ hospital hit 143 times within a month
🔻Fentanyl also stolen in PA, FL

A 35-year-old traveling nurse has been accused of stealing a massive amount of fentanyl from a New Jersey hospital in just a few weeks’ time.

David L. Shaeffer, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was arrested and charged with unlawfully acquiring or obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger announced.

Shaeffer has worked within the interventional radiology unit at hospitals in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.

According to a criminal complaint, Shaeffer worked in Hudson County “and elsewhere” between about Jan. 22 through Feb. 14, during which he stole vials of the powerful opioid at least 143 different times in New Jersey.

Read More: NJ sisters busted in drug theft, police say one posed as nurse

Shaeffer allegedly took the vials from the hospital’s automated medication dispensing cabinets by using an override in the system to bypass the required doctor’s order for fentanyl.

Fentanyl is “typically 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine,” according to the National Library of Medicine.

It comes in an injectable form, dispensed in doses such as 50 mcg or 100 mcg.

When a doctor prescribes an amount less than a full vial, medical staff are required to dispose of the remaining amount properly, in the presence of another nurse.

Shaeffer would prescribe the fentanyl himself to a specific patient —sometimes a patient who had already been discharged — then dispense and pocket the vials, according to the complaint.

Overall, he has been accused of making off with 29,300 mcg/29.3 mL of fentanyl in New Jersey, alone.

Fentanyl also stolen in PA, FL

Shaeffer has been accused of similarly stealing fentanyl while working at hospitals in Pennsylvania and Florida.

Travel nurses are unaffiliated with a specific location and instead are hired for temporary contracts.

In June, while Shaeffer was working at a Pennsylvania hospital, the facility began to investigate an incident in which medication was dispensed from a machine, then never given to a patient or disposed of properly.

After a colleague announced mandatory drug testing, Shaeffer began to ask questions and said he didn't feel well before abruptly leaving his shift, the complaint said.

He never returned to the Pennsylvania hospital.

On Wednesday, Shaeffer appeared in Tampa federal court and was released on $50,000 bond.

If convicted, the charge of unlawfully obtaining or acquiring controlled substances by fraud carries a maximum penalty of up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest.

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