The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, working at the request of the District Attorney General of the 22nd Judicial District, has released an investigation detailing the theft of $798,265 worth of medical supplies from Maury Regional Medical Center in Columbia, Tennessee.
Investigators determined that former System Coordinator Tommy John Riker stole the supplies between April 4, 2017 and September 1, 2019. He sold the supplies online and kept the cash for his personal benefit.
Riker worked in the hospital’s Supply Chain Department and was responsible for purchasing and managing items in the hospital’s inventory control system. His position allowed him to both steal items from the hospital’s inventory and then manipulate the inventory records to make it appear as if the supplies had been dispensed to staff.
Beginning in 2018, a hospital employee began alerting hospital officials to a potential problem, but hospital officials believed the issues were related to the inventory system. As a result, officials failed to investigate these issues until they received another report in July 2019. The failure to act allowed Riker’s theft scheme to continue and remain undetected for several months.
The Comptroller’s investigative report includes a more detailed breakdown of the types of supplies that were stolen by Riker. These supplies included needles, wound dressings, and surgical dressings.
Tommy John Riker was terminated from Maury Regional on November 2, 2019. On March 11, 2019, he was indicted by the Maury County Grand Jury on one count of theft over $250,000 and 54 counts of money laundering.
To view the investigative report, go to: https://comptroller.tn.gov/office-functions/investigations/find.html
If you suspect fraud, waste or abuse of public money in Tennessee, call the Comptroller’s toll-free hotline at 800.232.5454, or file a report online at: tncot.cc/fraud. Follow us on twitter: @TNCOT
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