According to Berry, some hospitals have a checkout system at an in-house pharmacy for anesthesiologists. The doctor goes to the pharmacy, writes down how much medicine is needed for a patient, uses it, and then returns with the waste.
Berry said hospitals are expected to perform random checks to see that the returned waste is actually the medicine and not a substitute, or in a diluted form.
Other hospitals use an automated technique to test for patterns.
"There are actually machines, like an ATM machine, where you put in your information, the name of the patient that it's going to be used for, and then a draw opens with the medication," said Berry. "When I'm done, I have to bring back the waste."
Yet, when those systems are skirted, veteran anesthesiologists and addiction specialists say that the drugs that are lifted -- most often fentanyl and sufentanyl -- are some of the most potent around.
"Fentanyl is 1,000 times more powerful than morphine," said Collins. "Sufentanyl is 1,000 times more powerful than that."
According to Collins, the highest risk for anesthesiologists to become addicted is in the early, high-stress training period of residency when they have seen the powerful effects of the drug, but do not have a lot of experience.
"These kids think they can manage this, that they know how to use the drugs. They'll take that risk and do it," said Collins. "They think they'll just take a little bit and be done, but it really doesn't work that way."
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