How a Florida pharmacy technician’s bra helped lead to her license being suspended
Smuggling bottles in her purse and pills in her bra, a pharmacy technician working in Lake City patiently stole 1,200 tablets of pain medication over 14 months, the Florida Department of Health said.
This is from the emergency suspension order (ESO) that the Department of Health dropped on the registered pharmacy technician license of Katrina Fahlberg, who gained the license in June 2013.
According to the ESO, Fahlberg worked at Genoa Healthcare in Lake City. In November, Genoa’s site manager filled a prescription for tramadol, a pain medication also sold under the brand name “Ultram.” In filling the prescription, the manager noticed something off in the inventory.
A review of records showed the ordered amounts and dispensed amounts didn’t match. The manager took this problem to Fahlberg, the ESO said, “who admitted to taking the tramadol 50mg tablets at work.”
Fahlberg explained she started stealing the tablets in August 2018.
“Ms. Fahlberg admitted that she took the bottles of tramadol off the shelf, poured out five to 10 tablets and consumed them,” the ESO said. “Ms. Fahlberg also admitted that she concealed stolen tablets of tramadol in her bra and bottles in her purse.”
She would then cover her thievery by ordering tramadol manually. The relatively low demand for tramadol meant the automated system wouldn’t re-order it.
“Ms. Fahlberg estimated that she took approximately 1,200 tramadol tablets while working at Genoa Healthcare.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2020 at 12:47 PM.
