PORTLAND, Oregon — In an alarming story this week, KGW news partner KOBI broke the news that Medford police are investigating allegations that a nurse at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center caused the deaths of multiple patients by injecting them with non-sterile tap water in place of prescribed fentanyl pain medication, leading to deadly infections.
Sources told KOBI that the nurse was misusing the medication and using the tap water replacement to try to cover it up, making it an alleged case of "drug diversion," in which doctors, nurses or other medical personnel use their access to steal and illegally use or resell prescription medications intended for patients — most commonly fentanyl or other opioids.
It's a widespread problem in U.S. hospitals, and coverage of the news this week has resurfaced a frequently-cited statistic that 10% of medical professionals divert drugs. A Google search shows that the 10% figure has frequently popped up in past stories, studies and papers about drug diversion, so we set out to VERIFY where that number comes from and if it's accurate.
THE QUESTION
Do 10% of medical professionals divert drugs?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Among publications about drug diversion from various U.S. health care organizations and government agencies, there is a fairly broad consensus that about 10% of medical professionals abuse drugs or suffer from substance use disorders at some point in their careers — with the caveat that it's only a rough estimate and it would be difficult to confirm an exact number.
There is also a clear and broad consensus that drug diversion is a widespread and growing problem in the U.S. health care system, creating patient safety risks. However, we could not VERIFY the specific claim that fully 10% of medical professionals divert drugs. The claim appears to be an assumption extrapolated from the 10% abuse statistic.
WHAT WE FOUND
The 10% figure appears in quite a few authoritative publications, including a 2023 article in the American Nurse Journal and a 2019 flyer from healthcare nonprofit The Joint Commission, both of which claim that about 10% of health care workers abuse drugs, citing statistics from the American Nurses Association (which publishes the American Nurse Journal) and the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The Joint Commission flyer and the American Nurses Association article are cited in many other publications that echo the 10% claim, including a 2019 article from the American College of Surgeons and a 2015 article in the journal Nursing 2024.
Similar figures also pop up independent of those sources, such as in a 2011 study published in the Journal of Addictive Diseases that claims an estimated 8-12% of physicians develop substance abuse problems at some point in their careers. There's also a 2023 article from the Institute for Safe Medical Practices that states that "one in 10 health care workers misuse drugs (or alcohol) during their career."
If 10% of medical professionals suffer from substance abuse problems at some point in their careers, it stands to reason that at least some of them would turn to drug diversion in their workplaces to supply themselves. But that inference alone is not enough to VERIFY that 10% of medical professionals divert drugs at some point in their careers, i.e. that every single medical professional who abuses drugs will also divert drugs.
We sought out sources to back up the specific claim that 10% of medical professionals divert drugs, but came away mostly empty-handed. There are some publications that make that claim, such as a 2020 article from Patient Safety and Quality Health Care or a 2022 study about controlled substance waste published in the journal Cureus.
Here's the rub: the Patient Safety and Quality Health Care article cites the Nursing 2024 article, and the study in Cureus cites the 2019 flyer from The Joint Commission. In both cases, the citations point back to earlier literature that doesn't actually claim that 10% of medical professionals divert drugs — only that 10% of medical professionals abuse drugs.
The Lund Report's story about the Asante investigation flagged a 2023 study from health care company Protenus that did tackle the drug diversion statistic directly, but Protenus estimated that "more than 1 in every 100 healthcare workers in the United States are diverting drugs." That technically doesn't rule out the 10% claim, but it falls short of being able to VERIFY it.
Got a question or a story about Portland or Oregon that you'd like us to VERIFY? Drop us a line at verify@kgw.com.
