Former Iowa City hospital nurse charged with taking patients' medications

A North Liberty man is charged with 12 counts of prohibited acts based on allegations he obtained prescription painkillers intended for patients at Mercy Iowa City, where he worked in 2009.

Adam John Moander, 28, of 143 Alydar Dr., North Liberty, is accused of removing Dilaudid from an electronic dispensing machine under the names of 12 patients who had been admitted to Mercy Iowa City for surgery in July and August of 2009.

Moander was not the patients' nurse at the time and there is no documentation the drugs ever got to the patients, Iowa City police reported.

In one case, when Moander was confronted by a patient's nurse, he said he inadvertently programmed the wrong patient into the dispensing machine, police reported. Moander's patient at that time didn't have a prescription for Dilauded, but Moander said the doctor called in the prescription, police reported.

The doctor does not remember this call and phone records from the floor do not show the phone call, police said.

The 12 criminal complaints, which list the patients with first and last initials, do not say whether the patients were harmed by not getting their medications.

A 13th complaint charging Moander with tampering with records states he removed narcotics from the hospital's PYXIS machine under various patient names, causing hospital records to be inaccurate.