Technician claimed it was common for drug counts to be inaccurate, but the only recorded discrepancies were hers
A New Brunswick arbitrator has upheld the dismissal of a pharmacy technician whose inaccurate recordkeeping showed that she likely was stealing narcotics.
Shelley Arsenault was a pharmaceutical technician hired in 2007 by the Doctor Everett Chalmers Hospital (DECH) in Fredericton, N.B. Since Arsenault was a technician and not a pharmacist, she wasn’t licensed by any governing body or college of pharmacists — instead, she was a graduate of a diploma program that focussed on general practices associated with the pharmacy technician role, helping the pharmacist.
When Arsenault started at DECH, she was trained over several weeks on the job. The training included the standard procedure of making a physical count of controlled drugs in stock on a weekly basis.
On Nov. 14, 2016, two employees in the DECH pharmacy expressed concern to the pharmacy manager about a medication delivery to a certain unit within the hospital’s system. The manager checked the narcotics dispensary inventory record and found that two days earlier, Arsenault had signed out 20 tablets of Zopiclone — a narcotic used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders — but only 10 tablets had been delivered to the unit.
The dispensing record showed two more orders of 20 tablets each of Zopiclone for the unit — in Arsenault’s handwriting. There was no record of Arsenault returning tablets to the pharmacy, though the standard procedure was for another employee to witness the restocking of a narcotic drug.
The manager had staff members conduct an audit of all pharmacy employees and drugs to look for other discrepancies, and he also informed the regional pharmacy manager and the DECH human resources manager. He then filed a “loss or theft report form for controlled substances and precursors” with Health Canada and the New Brunswick College of Pharmacists.
The audit found two more discrepancies related to expired medications. Arsenault had recorded removals of drugs from the dispensing cabinets because they had reached or would soon reach their expiry dates. The records indicated that on Oct. 23, Arsenault had removed four tablets of Zopiclone but there was no corresponding entry for placement of the tablets in a secure box for medication to be destroyed. Three days before that, on Oct. 20, Arsenault recorded that she had removed 10 Lorazepam tablets — another medication used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders — but no corresponding entry on the destruction record. There were no other discrepancies in the records involving Zopiclone or other employees.
The manager called the police, who investigated. However, no charges were laid because there wasn’t sufficient proof.
The manager planned to meet with Arsenault when she was next at work, but Arsenault called in with car trouble. He was able to meet with her on Nov. 17, along with an HR official and a union representative.
Arsenault claimed she didn’t remember the discrepancies and couldn’t offer an explanation. She speculated she may have thrown the tablets out, as she didn’t always follow policy. She also pointed out that mistakes in recording the quantities of controlled drugs was common and sometimes the rolls of 20 tablets were inaccurate — they were either short one tablet or had an extra one. She also said Zopiclone was a “not well used drug” and sometimes pharmacy technicians grabbed a roll without checking the stock numbers in the computer.
The manager put Arsenault on a paid leave of absence pending completion of the investigation. At the time, she was having difficulty in her marriage, had missed time at work and was considering taking a stress leave.
The manager and DECH determined that Arsenault had stolen the drugs, as there were multiple discrepancies in the dispensing record and they all involved her. In addition, the missing drugs were used to treat anxiety and sleep disorder — DECH didn’t think it was a coincidence since Arsenault had been under stress from her marriage problems.
DECH terminated Arsenault’s employment for theft. The union grieved the termination, arguing the hospital didn’t have proof that Arsenault stole the drugs and didn’t have just cause for dismissal.
The adjudicator found that the records established that controlled drugs were dispensed by Arsenault but there was no record of delivery of those drugs. Arsenault acknowledged those records and didn’t dispute they were inaccurate. Instead, she offered explanations of what might have happened and what she might have done, but her explanations were “speculative at best and never amount to more than mere ‘possibility,’” the adjudicator said.
The adjudicator also noted that Arsenault’s “non-response” and speculation when confronted by the manager lacked credibility considering it was only five days after the last discrepancy in the records. In addition, no other pharmacy technician acknowledged being involved in the recorded dispensing and no other staff member backed up her claim that mistakes were often made and the stock numbers were inaccurate. Arsenault’s explanation was essentially an attempt to “throw her fellow technicians at the DECH pharmacy ‘under the bus’” to save her skin, the adjudicator said.
The adjudicator determined that there was clear evidence of theft of the drugs and Arsenault failed to prove she didn’t take them or had good reason to not record why. Because Arsenault’s misconduct related to controlled drugs and the pharmacy’s ability to keep track of them, it put the pharmacy’s licence to dispense drugs at risk. This provided just cause for dismissal, said the adjudicator in upholding Arsenault’s termination. See CUPE, Local 1252 and Horizon Health Network (Zone 3) (Arsenault), Re, 2018 CarswellNB 143 (N.B. Lab. & Emp. Bd.).
