While gaps in oversight and monitoring protocols may have enabled the alleged theft of narcotics from Monroe County’s Trauma Star air ambulance program by its former chief flight nurse, Monroe County Fire Rescue Deputy Chief R.L. Colina told the county commission last week that today, his department is ready to go under the microscope at any time.
Colina’s presentation during the BOCC’s Oct. 16 session also came with updates from County Administrator Christine Hurley and HR Director Bryan Cook on the county’s progress in response to the thefts. The trio worked point by point through a 14-item series of recommendations from an August 2024 grand jury report.
The report accompanied indictments that same month of former County Administrator Roman Gastesi, former Medical Director Dr. Sandra Schwemmer and former Trauma Star Division Chief Andrea Thompson on a litany of charges including official misconduct for alleged roles in obscuring the drug diversion. The official investigations stemmed from a 2023 audit by the county clerk’s office that blasted MCFR’s former controlled substance protocols and detailed more than 600 drug vials missing from inventory logs.
As suggested in the report, the county terminated Thompson following a pre-determination hearing last month, and severed ties with Gastesi, who was working with the county in a volunteer capacity before a presumed re-hiring later in the year, immediately following the grand jury report. County contracts with Schwemmer’s company for medical director services have been terminated. The report also recommended County Fire Chief James Callahan be asked to resign before the end of the year, but Hurley said she is still reviewing this request.
Colina said MCFR’s systems for inventory management and logging underwent a complete overhaul in the months following discovery of the alleged drug diversion by Lynda Rusinowski, whose September 2022 arrest preceded the recent series of audits, indictments and jury reports.
“When we speak of a loss of trust in the community, theft (of the drugs) is the number one thing,” Colina said.
A paper log system, allegedly manipulated by Rusinowski in an attempt to conceal her thefts, gave way to multiple comprehensive electronic controlled substance inventory and tracking systems, beginning in December 2022 and continuing throughout 2023. Each use of controlled substances now requires identical logs from two employees, Colina said, with a similar system in place for unused “waste” of excess drugs after administration.
Security upgrades include three separate safes – one each for receiving, distributing or storing waste from controlled substances – with dual access codes or biometric locks at MCFR’s single inventory location in Marathon.
“The transfer of daily narcotics from paramedic to paramedic or nurse to paramedic follows a dual-verification process that is logged – who did it, when they did it and what was transferred,” Colina said. “We didn’t have that two years ago. That’s something we learned.”
“Commissioner (Jim) Scholl said ‘You’ve got to be audit-ready, inspection-ready.’ Monroe County Fire Rescue is, and we have been,” he concluded. “There isn’t a facet of this I don’t know – I promise you.”
Cook said the firefighters’ union so far appears amenable in contract negotiations to add random drug testing for EMS and Trauma Star employees. Colina said his department will add another alcohol and substance abuse prevention training module this month to the electronic platform used by all MCFR employees for annual drug awareness training, with an additional module for supervisor-level employees.
Cook added that the county will move forward with additional leadership, ethics and workplace compliance training for county employees, but that the grand jury’s recommended training for elected officials is set by state law, not county policy.
Hurley and Cook added that staff are also still examining ways to update the county’s system for investigating and responding to workplace complaints, seeking to maintain the anonymity of employees who act as whistleblowers, as well as ways to implement more checks and balances with the county administrator position.
