VA Drug Investigation Looking Into Entire Country, OKC Hospital

Federal agents are stepping up the investigation into drug thefts at VA Medical Centers and the entire VA network is being investigated, including the center in Oklahoma City.

These issues are said to date back to 2009. It's been discovered hospital staff has stolen drugs for either their own use or street sales. Veterans Affairs has not said exactly which hospitals have had these kinds of cases but the overall system is getting a closer look.

Over the last eight years, there's been a sharp increase in opioid theft, missing prescriptions, or unauthorized drug use by VA employees. Some cases even increased by the thousands.

News 9 contacted the hospital here and while they said they can't comment on any of these findings, they can tell us how they operate.

Locally in Oklahoma City, we monitor and track our opioids through a robust controlled substances program.  Each area within our facility that contains controlled substances is randomly inspected on a monthly basis by our VA healthcare professionals who are not involved with controlled substances.   To further ensure accountability, a 100% count of all controlled substances in the facility is completed quarterly.  An August 2016 review of our local controlled substance program by VA officials noted our program had a high level of compliance with VA policies and DEA regulations regarding accountability and inspection of controlled substances.