The Tampa area's two Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals — James A. Haley in Tampa and C.W. Bill Young in St. Petersburg — are among five in Florida reporting the loss of prescription pain killers, according to U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan.

One employee at the Young center received a two-week suspension over the disappearance of a narcotic, VA officials told Buchanan.

Statewide, about 30 Florida veterans were affected by the losses — "the overwhelming number" blamed on the postal system. The drug most often missing was oxycodone, with nearly 500 tablets, while 30 to 90 fentanyl pills also disappeared.

Nationwide, about 92 percent of the losses reported were blamed on the mail and just 1.5 percent on diversion by VA employees, Acting Undersecretary for Health Poonam Alaigh told Buchanan.

"As Florida confronts a deadly heroin and opioid epidemic, I'm disappointed to learn that some of our VA facilities were impacted by drug theft," Buchanan said in a news release. "The VA must do everything in its power to prevent drug thefts, which put our veterans and communities at risk."

Between January 2014 and March 2016, fewer than 2,500 cases of missing drugs were reported out of some 29 million doses, Alaigh told Buchanan in response to a letter of concern from the Longboat Key Republican.

Of the five instances of missing prescriptions involving Florida VA facilities in 2016, two directly involved VA employees and in a third case the VA could not identify a responsible individual, Alaigh said.

The other facilities in Florida reporting losses were in Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach according to Alaigh.

When drugs disappear through means other than the mail, he said, the Drug Enforcement Administration is notified.

VA centers count controlled substances every 72 hours and require storing information about them under lock and key, with electronic access controls requiring two-factor authentication, said Mary Kay Rutan, a spokeswoman for the VA regional office overseeing Florida.

Buchanan sent his letter to the VA in response to a Feb. 20 Associated Press story that found federal authorities are stepping up investigations at VA medical centers because of a sharp increase in opioid theft, missing prescriptions or unauthorized drug use by VA employees since 2009.

Doctors, nurses or pharmacy staff at federal hospitals — the vast majority within the VA system — siphoned away controlled substances for their own use or street sales, or drugs intended for patients simply disappeared.

Contact Howard Altman at haltman@tampabay.com or (813) 225-3112. Follow @haltman.