RICHMOND — The Indiana attorney general's office is seeking disciplinary action against the license of a nurse who admitted diverting $72,000 worth of opioids from Reid Health hospital.

The registered nurse, Michelle Hibbard, 43, allegedly was caught with nine vials of opioid pain medication while on duty at the hospital, which declined comment for this article.

According to an administrative complaint, the hospital's administrative coordinator on Jan. 7 confronted Hibbard after receiving a complaint that she had pulled several doses of fentanyl and dilaudid that were never administered to patients.

Asked to empty the pockets of her scrubs, Hibbard produced seven vials containing fentanyl and hydromorphone, according to the complaint. She also reportedly admitted that she had consumed another vial of fentanyl by squirting it into her mouth.

In addition, a strip search uncovered a blister pack containing a hydromorphone tablet, a tourniquet, a needle and two vials of hydromorphone in her underwear, according to the complaint.

The Richmond nurse reportedly admitted diverting and intravenously using drugs from the hospital for nearly half a year — at a rate of between one and 10 doses of pain medication a day.

Hospital records showed that she stole nearly 900 units of medication valued at about $72,000.

Hibbard, who declined comment for this story, has entered a three-year recovery monitoring agreement with the Indiana State Nurses Assistance Program (ISNAP).

In August, Hibbard pleaded guilty to felony drug and theft charges, for which she received probation and a suspended sentence of 547 days in prison. The next day, the attorney general filed a complaint asking the state board of nursing to impose disciplinary sanctions against Hibbard's license. The case remains pending.

Reid Health referred questions for this article to law enforcement.

"I think the opioid crisis is getting worse, according to all of the statistics, but we have not seen an increase in the number of nurses referred," ISNAP program director Chuck Lindquist told The Star Press. "We are currently monitoring over 400 nurses, and we have 70 in intake. Obviously, that's less than 1 percent of folks with Indiana nursing licenses."

There are about 140,000 nurses in Indiana, he said, and it is estimated that at least 10 percent are addicted to alcohol or other drugs. "That means 14,000 nurses are … possibly struggling with addiction, and we're seeing only 500 of them," Lindquist said. "There are some nurses in the throes of addiction that we just don't hear about until they're caught diverting or coming to the work place impaired."

In the past year, ISNAP intakes actually decreased to 241 compared to 297 the previous year. "We have seen a bit of an increase in the use of heroin over the past 12 to 18 months," Lindquist said. "But if overall opioid use is getting worse, we're not getting additional referrals as a result. Most of our nurses are referred through their employer or the attorney general."

Seth Slabaugh is a reporter at The Star Press who can be reached at (765) 213-5834 or seths@muncie.gannett.com.