Print edition: 
A Kansas nursing home where a nurse with a history of drug abuse allegedly diluted morphine said Thursday that no patients actually got the tampered medicine.
Deborah J. Riggs of Goddard was charged Wednesday in a 10-count indictment with tampering with a consumer product and adulteration of drugs. The 55-year-old nurse is accused of diluting the morphine solutions intended for five patients at the Halstead Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Riggs has a history of convictions and nursing-license suspensions stemming from previous allegations of mismanaging or stealing controlled substances.
"The indictment alleges Riggs' actions were taken with reckless disregard for and extreme indifference to the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or bodily injury," U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a statement.
Her public defender, Marilyn Trubey, was out of the office Thursday. Riggs' phone was disconnected.
Lee Eaton, the nursing home's regional manager, said the affected drugs in the most recent case were taken from a seldom-used overflow area. Facility officials noticed broken seals on the bottles and sent the drugs for testing.
The nursing home initiated the investigation and alerted federal authorities, Eaton said.
"We are also the ones that fully cooperated with them... or this lady would still be working in Kansas nursing homes," he said.
Mitzi McFatrick, executive director of Kansas Advocates for Better Care, said the Legislature passed a bill in the past session expanding criminal background checks and records for medical professionals. An interim legislative committee is expected to consider how to modify the regulations later this month.
Riggs worked as a registered nurse for the Halstead facility from March 2008 until this past March. In December she became a narcotics charge nurse and was given keys to the cabinet where narcotic medications were stored, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges she removed about 30 to 60 percent of the contents from bottles of a morphine-based solution and replaced it with another unspecified substance.
It wasn't the first time she was accused of mismanaging a controlled substance.
Riggs was convicted in federal court in Wichita in 1998 of felony possession of a controlled substance by fraud. She was sentenced to two years probation and four months of home detention.
The Kansas Board of Nursing suspended her nursing license in February 2000 for forging prescriptions. Her suspension was stayed and she was conditionally allowed to continue practicing nursing.
Eight years later the board again suspended her license for drug abuse and for stealing narcotics while she was a nurse at a Wichita hospital. Again the board stayed the suspension.
A message left with the board's administrative office Thursday was not immediately returned.
The Board of Nursing order was amended in 2009 after Riggs allegedly forged a physician's signature on a painkiller prescription.
Under the conditions of the order she was required to tell any current or prospective employer of the board's actions.
In her job application to Halstead, Riggs did not list her prior felony conviction, Eaton said. The facility relied on the Kansas Board of Nursing, which does its own background checks of licensees, when it hired her. Nothing in the facility's online license checks for employers listed the prior felony conviction or noted her license was under review.
It wasn't until after she was hired and the nursing board suspended her license that the facility learned of her drug-abuse history.
"Her duties were reassigned once we became aware of that," Eaton said. She was fired in March.
Chet West, administrator of the Halstead facility, noted that Riggs was participating in the Kansas Nurses Assistance Program, or KNAP, a professional assistance program designed to help nurses who have drug addictions or other issues that can impair their ability to practice safely.
Eaton said the company is now reviewing its hiring practices but noted that the system for flagging nurse violations is inadequate.
For example, even state background checks run Thursday showed Riggs with a valid nursing license and didn't turn up her federal conviction, he said.
If convicted, Riggs faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
