Former worker at Clay Co. nursing home arrested for stealing opioids

Jacksonville, FL — A now-former employee of a nursing home in Clay County is under arrest for stealing patient medication.

An affidavit for arrest warrant says deputies were called to 2145 Kingsley Avenue at the Life Care Center. It states the Director of Nursing at the facility told deputies that they suspected Lisa Marie Vanallen had been stealing prescription medications, including Oxycodone and Hydrocodone

The arrest information says Vanallen was logging that she was regularly distributing drugs to a patient, but other employees said those drugs were prescribed to the patient “as needed”, and they hadn’t found the patient to need them. Investigators believe Vanallen was keeping the pills for herself, despite logging that they were going to the patient.

Vanallen, who had been an employee with the Life Care Center since May of 2017, was arrested May 21st on a felony charge of grand theft of a controlled substance. The report says she is accused of stealing 104 pills valued at $1,430.00. While she worked at the facility at the time of allegations, her arrest report says she is currently unemployed.

The affidavit indicates Vanallen did speak with investigators, but what she says has been redacted. It does show that Vanallen had been injured in an August 2017 shooting and took some time off work. She had been averaging three twelve-hour shifts a week, since returning in September 2017.