Judge jails healthcare worker who stole meds in ER

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A woman has been sentenced to jail time for repeatedly stealing medication while she worked at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre. 

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Court heard Monica LeBlanc, 32, stole medication from secure emergency room cabinets over a period of months and used various schemes to cover her tracks, then lied to hospital management when confronted about the thefts. 

“This was not an isolated error in judgment,” said Judge Brigitte Volpe. 

LeBlanc had worked several years as a licensed practical nurse leading up to her crime. She was to stand trial this July on a charge of stealing medication from the Dumont hospital between January and June in 2023 but instead pleaded guilty. 

Prosecutor Guillaume Rigucci had asked for six months in jail and two years probation, while defence lawyer Bruce Phillips asked for a six-month conditional sentence with house arrest and probation, or 90 days jail served on weekends and probation, which would allow LeBlanc to care for her infant during the week while her partner works. 

Volpe said on Thursday that six months would be an appropriate sentence, given the serious breach of trust. But she gave LeBlanc 90 days on weekends and two years’ probation so she can care for her child during the week and remain under her doctor’s care. There was evidence provided by the defence that the offender had been stealing the medication to feed her drug addiction and attempt suicide. 

She was also fined $1,500 and banned from driving for a year for driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08 when she crashed into an NB Power pole in Memramcook on May 27, 2022. 

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The judge said she hopes jail deters LeBlanc and others from embarking on such breaches of trust. She said LeBlanc used a systematic scheme to bypass security protocols and steal 178 vials of Dilaudid and 30 pills of various medication. 

“I’m sorry,” LeBlanc told court in November. “I admit my wrongdoings and I’m prepared to take the consequences of my actions.” 

Rigucci said in November that the emergency department has secured cabinets in three locations that contain medication. To access the medication, a health worker must enter a username and password or use their fingerprint. 

The prosecutor said the cabinets keep track of the medication that’s removed and restocked daily. In this case, staff began noticing “unresolved discrepancies” in the amount of two-milligram vials of the narcotic Dilaudid. The investigation soon determined LeBlanc was on shift at the times those discrepancies took place. 

Rigucci said hospital staff undertook a lengthy investigation before making accusations about the disproportionate amount of the painkilling drug being removed, including comparing the data from the cabinets to patient charts to see if there was any explanation for what happened. It was discovered there were 83 patient files with irregularities that indicated LeBlanc was taking the drugs for herself by trying to make it look like it was for legitimate patient use. 

For example, one patient was discharged from the hospital and then an hour later a vial was removed from the cabinet supposedly to give the medication to them. Other times LeBlanc had logged that patients were to receive the medication when they hadn’t seen a doctor yet. 

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Rigucci said the hospital also has a policy that if part of a vial is used, the rest of the medication in the vial must be disposed of in the presence of two staff members as witnesses. It was noted during the investigation that LeBlanc was keeping leftover portions of medication in the vials instead of properly disposing of it. 

Rigucci said she was suspended at the end of the investigation and while the nurse initially claimed someone must have stolen her password to access the cabinets, 99 per cent of the times the drugs were wrongly taken her fingerprint was found to have been used to access the meds.  

The prosecutor said the vials of medication were only worth $1 each at wholesale cost, but the breach of trust in the case was substantial. 

Phillips said his client wasn’t stealing for profit but was an addict. 

He said LeBlanc has abused alcohol and drugs in the past and was taking vials of drugs from the hospital where she worked as a nurse for her own use. He said that culminated in an intentional overdose in June 2022 that she survived and she hasn’t abused drugs since then. He said his client lost her job and had her nursing licence suspended and will likely never work in health care with access to medication again. 

“She had an addiction issue and fragile mental health,” the defence lawyer said. “Put them together and it’s directly related to the theft allegations.” 

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