MONROE COUNTY CLERK’S INVESTIGATION REVEALS 623 MISSING VIALS OF FENTANYL & OTHER NARCOTICS

AUDIT: OVERSIGHT FAILURES & SLOPPY INVENTORY ENABLED THEFT BY TRAUMA STAR FLIGHT NURSE

An audit of Monroe County Fire Rescue’s controlled substances procedures, released May 11 by the county’s Clerk of the Court, reveals glaring breakdowns in oversight that allegedly enabled a chief flight nurse with the county’s Trauma Star life-flight service to steal more than 200 vials of fentanyl, Dilaudid, ketamine and other narcotics. Lynda Rusinowski, 56, had worked as chief flight nurse for Monroe County Fire Rescue (MCFR) until she was taken to rehab by another MCFR employee and eventually suspended and arrested in September 2022. Her felony charges are still making their way through the courts. According to her arrest warrant, Rusinowksi “admitted to stealing the drugs for her personal use,” while she was en route to rehab in West Palm Beach.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office initially reported Rusinowski’s arrest, adding that officials with MCFR received an anonymous tip in late July 2022 about Rusinowski altering controlled substance inventory logs in an effort to pilfer the drugs. As chief flight nurse, she was an employee of Monroe County Fire Rescue, not the Sheriff’s Office.

Monroe County Fire Rescue is in charge of the flight nurses, Trauma Star’s medical supplies, patient records and oversight of all three. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is in charge of the pilots and the three Trauma Star helicopters that annually transport 1,200 to 1,300 patients, often with lifethreatening conditions, to mainland hospitals, Sheriff Rick Ramsay told the Keys Weekly on June 12.

The audit report notes no wrongdoing on the part of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, but is highly critical of Monroe County Fire Rescue and senior county administration.

In the two months following Rusinowski’s arrest, MCSO also arrested para-

Total vials of narcotics missing from inventory logs as a result of possible drug diversion during the audit period. MONROE COUNTY CLERK OF THE COURT/ Contributed medics Harold Jaesson Perez, 34, and Damian Roberto Suarez, 44, for allegedly lying to detectives about knowledge of Rusinowski’s potential thefts and deleting text messages related to the investigation. Their cases are still ongoing as well, with separate hearings scheduled this month. Suarez and Perez continue to work for MCFR, Sheriff Ramsay said, but he added that they will never again work aboard a Trauma Star helicopter.

Audit Finds 623 Missing

Narcotics Vials And Critical Deficiencies

In early August 2022, former MCFR

Chief Steve Hudson formally asked the county’s Clerk of the Court to conduct an internal audit of the department’s emergency medical services’ system performance and controlled substance inventory records from June 2021 through July 2022. Hudson officially retired in December 2022, although sources familiar with the audit told the Keys Weekly he wasn’t given a choice after requesting the audit.

The audit details a total of 623 vials of controlled substances missing from inventory logs during the audit period, including 242 vials of Dilaudid and 219 of fentanyl. (According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is a controlled substance, “a potent synthetic opioid drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as an analgesic (pain relief) and anesthetic.”) Though it acknowledges that some discrepancies could be due to sloppiness in record-keeping, which are extensively criticized throughout the report, it estimates that 246 missing vials – including 91 of fentanyl and 84 of Dilaudid – were likely stolen via the intentional falsification of records.

A study of Lynda Rusinowski’s working hours during calendar year 2021 revealed more than 2,000 overtime hours worked, raising her base pay of $71,386 to $180,967.

The nearly 80-page audit report, submitted by interim internal audit director Pam Radloff and released on May 11, details massive discrepancies in controlled substance inventory records due to theft, stating that “controlled substances were being diverted by MCFR staff along with a widespread lack of management oversight.”

The report cites a lack of attention by MCFR Medical Director Dr. Sandra Schwemmer as a “primary reason that the chief flight nurse’s alleged drug diversion activities went undetected for so long.” Schwemmer was counseled three times by then-Chief Hudson continued on page 8