A woman accused of sneaking into Beaverton's Maryville Nursing Home has been arrested.
Theresa Kim Smith is a certified nursing assistant in the Portland area and someone the police listed as “a person of interest” in a reported theft of Fentanyl pain patches.  The suspect woman posed as an employee at the Maryville Nursing Home on three separate occasions, but no motive was suspected at the time. Tips from the public led police to interview Smith, and the stealing Fentanyl patches from residents could be a possible motive.

Smith, who works at the Care Center East Nursing Home in Portland, is suspected of stealing the pain patches from multiple nursing home locations.  The Oregon State Board of Nursing has been conducting its own investigation into Smith’s reported Fentanyl thefts and has suspended her CNA certification.  Read more about the posing nurse here.

Is the staff turnover at nursing homes so great that the people who actually work at the facilities can not recognize a new face?  Perhaps equally frightening is how lazy these facilities are when it comes to securing such a dangerous drug like Fentanyl.  The authorities should investigate the self-serving Fentanyl incident.