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Nurse faces charges of HRH demerol theft
By Carey Phillips
A former nurse at Harris Regional Hospital, who is also a local businessman, has been charged with stealing drugs from the hospital.
Deiter Richard Kuhn, 49, of Ben Cook Road, Sylva, is charged with seven counts of embezzling a controlled substance by an employee, according to Detective John Buchanan of the Sylva Police Department.
Kuhn owns Heinzelmannchen, a Mill Street brewery. He was released from custody after posting a $15,000 unsecured bond, Buchanan said.
Warrants on file at the Jackson County Clerk of Court office indicated Kuhn took Demerol from Harris Regional on seven occasions from January through August of last year.
“We are deeply disappointed that this happened,” said Brian Thomas, a spokesman for Harris Regional. “We feel that a trust was violated, but we have not found that patients were denied any type of medication. We’re working with the Police Department to make sure everything is taken care of.”
Kuhn was a floor nurse at Harris Regional and had been employed about 10 years, according to Thomas, who added Kuhn was considered a very good employee.
Hospital officials became aware of the problem in November.
“A nurse manager noticed some strange activity with the system we had in place to dispense drugs and ended up catching him and confronting him about it,” Thomas said. “He admitted what he had been doing.”
Kuhn voluntarily surrendered his nursing license and was fired from the hospital following an internal investigation, according to Thomas.
As a result of the incident, additional safeguards have been put into place regarding dispensing of medications at Harris Regional, Thomas said.
“This has been a very cooperative investigation on the part of Harris Regional and Mr. Kuhn,” Buchanan said.
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