Miller’s nursing license in jeopardy

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A local registered nurse, Michelle Miller, 39, who has been arrested on six felonies related to allegedly forging narcotics prescriptions and attempting to forge another, faces the possibility of having her nursing license revoked.

She will receive a “Notice of Contemplative Action,” this week, from the state’s Board of Nursing in Albuquerque.

“She will have 20 days to respond to the letter, which will inform her that the board is ‘contemplating’ removing her nurse’s license. If she does not respond, the license will be revoked,” Allison Kozeliski, executive director of the board, said.

“Michelle Miller will receive due process. If she responds to the notice the board will hold a hearing in which she or her attorney can address the arrest charges,” Kozeliski said.

Complaints, rehabilitation

Kozeliski told the Independent Monday the board receives more than 340 complaints about nurses in a variety of scenarios. She said about 30 percent of those, or about 102, are complaints about chemical dependency. Currently there are 26,000 licensed nurses in the state.

Some nurses, because of the situations surrounding their chemical dependency, are offered a five-year contract to undergo a thorough, rigorous outpatient rehabilitation program to help them become clean, and learn how to stay clean, Kozeliski said.

“Those nurses are allowed to continue practicing while meeting the rigid demands of the program,” she said.
Miller was offered such a program last year when a complaint was filed by the state’s Board of Pharmacy, Kozeliski said.

“She refused the program,” Kozeliski said.

In June, the most recent information available related to disciplinary action by the board on licensed nurses showed that of 19 individuals currently under investigation, 10 had licenses revoked. Of the remaining some had licenses reinstated, and the rest had disciplinary actions from letters of reprimand to being placed on probationary status.

Kozeliski said the investigation was progressing when a call came in last week from a different source, also about Miller. It was at that point the board discovered the arrest on the seven felonies and launched the final phase of the investigation: A hearing and ultimately a decision on whether to revoke the license or not.