Tri-City Nurse Charged With Drug Theft, Working Without License

Charges have been filed against a nurse who practiced without a license for as long as four years at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside and allegedly stole narcotics from the hospital, the district attorney’s office said this week.

Alan Joseph Corey was charged Tuesday with two felony counts of illegal use of narcotics, two counts of maintaining a false record related to the narcotics, one misdemeanor count of improper use of the term registered nurse and one misdemeanor count of practicing without being a registered nurse, said Linda Miller, a spokeswoman for the district attorney.

Corey, a licensed registered nurse in Oregon, was hired in January, 1984, by Tri-City, although the hospital had not seen a copy of the temporary license he claimed to have, hospital officials said. Instead, Corey gave the hospital what he said was his temporary license number, said Carmen Harney, assistant administrator at Tri-City.

Under guidelines established by the California Board of Registered Nursing, a nurse with a valid license in another state has one year to apply for a permanent license in California. If the paper work is not completed in that time, the file is destroyed, said Ernie Lazar, licensing evaluator with the board.

Harney said that during an investigation the hospital conducted in January, it learned that Corey had never been permanently licensed in California and that the number he had given the hospital was not on file with the nursing board--although it could have been at one time. She would not reveal the nature of the investigation, but the district attorney’s office said the probe uncovered evidence of missing narcotics at the hospital and indicated that reports were falsified by Corey.

According to Lazar, a hospital cannot hire a licensed worker without seeing the license. “A hospital is supposed to see his license before they hire him. Sometimes they call and try to ask for a number. . . . Some employers are so desperate for people that they don’t really follow through with the necessary procedures.”

Harney said Corey may have had his temporary license renewed “multiple” times, but that there is “some discrepancy” between hospital documents and records on file with the nursing board. “We’re still trying to sort that out,” she said.

Harney said the hospital has implemented new procedures to verify the licensing of its personnel.