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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Nurse charged with abuse for stealing patient’s Oxycodone
Iowa Board of Nursing also orders additional training for two Cedar Rapids nurses
For the second time in 10 years, an Iowa nurse accused of stealing patient painkillers has had her license suspended by the state.
The Iowa Board of Nursing recently voted to indefinitely suspend the license of Tammie Lynn Illg, 47, of Whittemore, alleging that in October 2022 she stole prescription painkillers from a patient. The suspension will remain in place until Illg completes a chemical dependency evaluation and provides proof of 12 months of sobriety.
Court records indicate Illg was working as a nurse at West Bend Health and Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto County, where, on two different days, she gave a patient Tylenol rather than the man’s prescribed Oxycodone and then kept the prescription drug for herself.
Illg was criminally charged with dependent adult abuse and felony drug diversion. She has pleaded guilty to the drug diversion charge, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 16.
In 2014, the board imposed a license suspension order against Illg after she was convicted of trespassing and possession of a controlled substance. Court records indicate those criminal convictions stemmed from allegations that Illg had stolen 14 Hydrocodone tablets from her place of employment at the time, which the board didn’t identify.
Other recent actions by the Iowa Board of Nursing include:
- Carine Ayuk of Owings Mills, Md. — The board charged Ayuk with falsification of licensing credentials. According to the board, Ayuk submitted a license application to the Iowa Board of Nursing three years ago, in May 2020, and was issued a license one month later. The board now alleges the credentials Ayuk provided were falsified in some manner. Ayuk has agreed to surrender her license.
- Sonia York of Burlington — The board ordered York to complete a three-day virtual course in patient boundaries and professional ethics. The board had charged York with making lewd, suggestive or sexual comments. It’s not clear from the available public documents to whom the comments were directed. York was charged with the formal offense making the comments “to a patient,” but board documents indicate the charge was based on the board’s allegation that she had exchanged text communications of a sexual nature “with the son of a patient.”
- Stephanie Monds of Gray, Ga. — The Iowa Board of Nursing charged Monds, who was working at an unspecified Iowa hospital in 2021 and 2022, with four regulatory violations: misappropriation of patient medications; committing an act that may adversely affect the physical or psychosocial welfare of a patient; violating patient privacy rights; and failing to assess or accurately document a patient’s status. She was accused of giving patients only a portion of the medications she had obtained for them and then failing to account for the rest of the medication. She was also accused of obtaining medication for patients not assigned to her and then “wasting” the drugs by disposing of them. As part of a settlement agreement with the board, Monds agreed to relinquish her privilege to practice in Iowa. In 2011, the Georgia Board of Nursing was informed that Monds had been fired from her job as a nurse for diverting narcotics to her own personal use. The Georgia board subsequently placed her license on probation, which she successfully completed.
- Melaney Thomas of Cedar Rapids — After being charged by the Iowa Board of Nursing with violating patient confidentiality, Thomas was ordered to complete 30 hours of educational training on patient privacy and the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. Thomas was accused of accessing the medical files of five family members on several occasions while working as a hospital nurse between October 2021 and June 2022.
- Julianne Redington of Cedar Rapids — The Board of Nursing charged Redington with committing an act that may adversely affect the physical or psychosocial welfare of a patient or client. According to the board, that charge is based on an allegation that while employed at an unspecified care facility in the fall of 2022, Redington “had an inappropriate interaction” with either the residents, the staff or the relatives of residents at the facility where she worked. The board did not elaborate on Redington’s alleged conduct. The board ordered her to complete 30 hours of educational training on managing difficult patients.
- Sarah Bracht-Wagner of Mason City — The Board of Nursing ordered Bracht-Wagner to complete 60 hours of educational training in ethics and nursing procedures after alleging she had performed nursing services outside the authorized scope of practice for her license and then falsified records. The charges stemmed from allegations that she administered to a patient intravenous medications she was not trained to deliver, then falsely documented that someone else had administered the drugs to conceal her actions.
This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
