KEENE, NH – Cheshire Medical Center has been ordered to pay $2 million to resolve allegations of the Controlled Substances Act violations.

According to a news release from the office of United States Attorney Jane E. Young, District of New Hampshire, as part of a settlement Cheshire Medical has been ordered to pay to resolve allegations hat it violated the CSA by failing to keep accurate records of controlled substances, including opioids.

The CSA deters the illegal distribution, possession, dispensing, and improper use of controlled substances, and requires the accurate inventorying, tracking, and record-keeping to prevent misuse.

“Cheshire Medical Center’s failure to fulfill its obligations under the Controlled Substance Act enabled the theft of prescription narcotics – including powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which led to a shockingly high percentage of drugs missing from CMS’s inventory. The failures uncovered warranted a multi-million-dollar penalty and a stringent corrective action plan,” Young said in the release. “This is one of the largest settlements of drug diversion claims against a hospital in the country.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration launched an investigation into Cheshire Medical after a nurse had reportedly stolen 23 intravenous bags of fentanyl solution from an automatic medication dispensing machine. Cheshire Medical initially reported the theft to the DEA in February 2022, and later reported that an additional 634 bags of fentanyl were unaccounted for.

The nurse that allegedly stole the drugs died in March 2022.

In April 2022, DEA investigators conducted audits of eight controlled substances at Cheshire Medical’s inpatient pharmacy. The audit revealed an additional 17,961 missing controlled substance units and various related record-keeping deficiencies. It also revealed that, among other things, Cheshire Medical failed to regularly review reports to look for possible diversion, to have sufficient structures in place to alert it to the increases purchasing of controlled substances from month to month, and to enforce various controlled substance security policies.

The settlement resolved the allegations that Cheshire Medical violated the record-keeping requirements of the CSA. As part of the settlement, in addition to the improvements voluntarily undertaken by Cheshire Medical before and after the DEA investigation, Cheshire Medical has agreed to additional security and record-keeping measures.