Jennifer Cooper (Photo courtesy of Baxter County Sheriff’s Office)
A former hospital worker pled guilty during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday (March 17) to forging prescriptions for a weight loss drug that is classified as a Schedule IV controlled substance.
Jennifer Cooper of Salem, who worked at the Fulton County Hospital and ran the IT department for a time after Baxter Health took over management of the facility, was charged with 84 counts of forging and passing fake prescriptions.
After entering her guilty plea, Cooper was sentenced to six years-probation.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the prescriptions were written for Phentermine using the name of a doctor practicing in Salem. The drug is available by prescription only and is basically used as an appetite suppressor. While the potential for abuse is lower with Phentermine than with many other drugs, it is chemically similar to amphetamine and does carry a risk of dependence and abuse, particularly when overused.
The prescriptions were filled at Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies in Mountain Home.
The scheme came to light when a new “cloud-based” electronic system was installed at the Fulton County Hospital on which doctors called in prescriptions.
Officials saw that only one doctor continued to use the old system, and he was also well known to write prescriptions for his patients eschewing any electronic system.
The prescriptions for the weight loss drug, on which the doctor’s name was used without his knowledge, were written for Cooper and in other names.
When investigators went to Cooper’s residence in Salem, she was said to have admitted using the doctor’s name on the forged prescriptions. She told investigators she was not sure how many prescriptions had been forged and said she had been doing it for about six months.
Cooper said her husband knew nothing about her activity. She gave investigators permission to check her computer and cellphone and showed authorities the PDF file she used to produce the fake prescriptions.
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