the case of the jailed pyxis user
Dear Dale,
I read your writing below and I have a friend who was wrongly convicted of stealing drugs at the hospital where she worked. The prosecution's entire case was a pyxis report. I'm curious about the reliability of the reports. I'm not wanting information on how to do any of it. What I'm mostly wondering is, could someone have made it look like she took the pills. The report was run twice with no flags, but after she was suspected, it picked up the information that convicted her. Any light you can put on the subject, or if you can direct me to somewhere that I can get more information, I'd sure appreciate it.
"Work has been going well. It turns out the midazolam I discovered was missing, wasn't. Which is good, because when something isn't where it's supposed to be, it always winds up with my little signature attached. I do know how to get around that, by the way, but I don't want my blog to be the favorite destination of health care workers who want to steal drugs out of the pyxis, so I'm going to leave it at that, except to say that if I ever get in trouble for stealing drugs I didn't steal, I plan to us that knowledge just to show the management I pretty much have a sticker of Calvin peeing on their beloved drug security. I don't think it will ever come to that. This place isn't rife with enough of those kinds of problems to make overreacting a symptomatic, commonplace event. You're innocent till proven guilty around here."
Thanks,
Steve
-----------------------------------------------------
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I've been on vacation.
The following information is pertinent to the medstation 2000 system from pyxis.
The reports generated by the system are indeed a perfect record of what the machines think happened. It's all archived away in a very secure fashion and printed out and hidden in a locked facility for the DEA to look in on any time they want. Hoorah. But if the reports reflect what the machines think they're doing and the machines aren't doing that, the data is worthless.
It's usually not worthless in the long run, which is only the case because people tend to be honest. I think this is because they think they're being watched, which with the biometric ID's psychological value is understandable.
If I were you I'd try to subpoena a FST (field service technician) and his or her records (if they have them) for the facility your friend worked at. They're going to have specific information about how much the machines break down and what kinds of problems there typically are. And they're not going to want to give it to you, not to make it sound too "down the rabbit hole"-esque.
There are 5 different kinds of storage in the pyxis, all with their different problems, all of which are directly related to their mode of operation.
matrix, cubie, carousel, tower, mini.
Controlled drugs like opiates only wind up in the secure ones. Cubie, mini, carousel.
Carousels spin, and sometimes the sensor gets screwed up and the machine opens to the comepletely wrong pocket. This happens ALL THE TIME. When it happens, and the drug the machine thinks it's open to isn't controlled and the drug it IS open to IS controlled, then the drugs that walk off and the machine doens't know the first thing about it. Where's your precious report going to get you on that one? The machine didn't do what it thought it did. I saw this happen every other day when I worked for pyxis.
Cubies release at the wrong times sometimes, and sometimes they even open up for no reason. This is probably the best single fact for you, as it's where the drug your friend is accused of taking most likely was. Sometimes, drawers full of cubies open up and every single cubie in the entire drawer opens at the same time. Ask a nurse is she's ever seen it. Ask an FST. And if they (the FST) pretend not to know what you're talking about, ask them what happens when they push the little red buttons in the back of the cubie drawers. That's what they're for. I think it's if somebody is dying or the software totally eats shit and they have to empty the machine out. They get the keys, open the back of the machine, and push the little red button, and every drug you could imagine is just lying there wide open. Sometimes, this happens without the keys, without the button being pusjed. The machine is crazy. There's another sure thing -- ask a nurse if the machine is crazy. I'm not a legal guy and I never watch annoying law shows, but I would think this fact alone could create a reasonable doubt that the appearance that Cardinal health is heavily invested in, that their system is ironclad, is not the case all the time like they'd have you believe.
Minis work fairly well in my experience. I really haven't seen problems with them opening, just not opening.
I hope this has been helpful. Good luck to your friend.
I read your writing below and I have a friend who was wrongly convicted of stealing drugs at the hospital where she worked. The prosecution's entire case was a pyxis report. I'm curious about the reliability of the reports. I'm not wanting information on how to do any of it. What I'm mostly wondering is, could someone have made it look like she took the pills. The report was run twice with no flags, but after she was suspected, it picked up the information that convicted her. Any light you can put on the subject, or if you can direct me to somewhere that I can get more information, I'd sure appreciate it.
"Work has been going well. It turns out the midazolam I discovered was missing, wasn't. Which is good, because when something isn't where it's supposed to be, it always winds up with my little signature attached. I do know how to get around that, by the way, but I don't want my blog to be the favorite destination of health care workers who want to steal drugs out of the pyxis, so I'm going to leave it at that, except to say that if I ever get in trouble for stealing drugs I didn't steal, I plan to us that knowledge just to show the management I pretty much have a sticker of Calvin peeing on their beloved drug security. I don't think it will ever come to that. This place isn't rife with enough of those kinds of problems to make overreacting a symptomatic, commonplace event. You're innocent till proven guilty around here."
Thanks,
Steve
-----------------------------------------------------
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I've been on vacation.
The following information is pertinent to the medstation 2000 system from pyxis.
The reports generated by the system are indeed a perfect record of what the machines think happened. It's all archived away in a very secure fashion and printed out and hidden in a locked facility for the DEA to look in on any time they want. Hoorah. But if the reports reflect what the machines think they're doing and the machines aren't doing that, the data is worthless.
It's usually not worthless in the long run, which is only the case because people tend to be honest. I think this is because they think they're being watched, which with the biometric ID's psychological value is understandable.
If I were you I'd try to subpoena a FST (field service technician) and his or her records (if they have them) for the facility your friend worked at. They're going to have specific information about how much the machines break down and what kinds of problems there typically are. And they're not going to want to give it to you, not to make it sound too "down the rabbit hole"-esque.
There are 5 different kinds of storage in the pyxis, all with their different problems, all of which are directly related to their mode of operation.
matrix, cubie, carousel, tower, mini.
Controlled drugs like opiates only wind up in the secure ones. Cubie, mini, carousel.
Carousels spin, and sometimes the sensor gets screwed up and the machine opens to the comepletely wrong pocket. This happens ALL THE TIME. When it happens, and the drug the machine thinks it's open to isn't controlled and the drug it IS open to IS controlled, then the drugs that walk off and the machine doens't know the first thing about it. Where's your precious report going to get you on that one? The machine didn't do what it thought it did. I saw this happen every other day when I worked for pyxis.
Cubies release at the wrong times sometimes, and sometimes they even open up for no reason. This is probably the best single fact for you, as it's where the drug your friend is accused of taking most likely was. Sometimes, drawers full of cubies open up and every single cubie in the entire drawer opens at the same time. Ask a nurse is she's ever seen it. Ask an FST. And if they (the FST) pretend not to know what you're talking about, ask them what happens when they push the little red buttons in the back of the cubie drawers. That's what they're for. I think it's if somebody is dying or the software totally eats shit and they have to empty the machine out. They get the keys, open the back of the machine, and push the little red button, and every drug you could imagine is just lying there wide open. Sometimes, this happens without the keys, without the button being pusjed. The machine is crazy. There's another sure thing -- ask a nurse if the machine is crazy. I'm not a legal guy and I never watch annoying law shows, but I would think this fact alone could create a reasonable doubt that the appearance that Cardinal health is heavily invested in, that their system is ironclad, is not the case all the time like they'd have you believe.
Minis work fairly well in my experience. I really haven't seen problems with them opening, just not opening.
I hope this has been helpful. Good luck to your friend.
posted by dale at 1:15 PM
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