Top 10 Things to Consider Before Drug Diversion Finds YouTop 10 Things to Consider Before Drug Diversion Finds You
Drug Diversion Insights with Terri Vidals
Terri Vidals shares a candid top‑10 countdown on why hospital drug diversion programmes fail and what leaders need to change. The conversation focuses on enterprise responsibility, funding, software, accountability and patient safety in healthcare settings.
30:53•7 Oct 2026
Top 10 Ways Hospital Drug Diversion Programs Fail (And How to Fix Them)
Episode Overview
- Treat drug diversion as an enterprise-wide risk with clear ownership and board-level visibility, not just a pharmacy issue.
- Invest in dedicated staffing, technology and time for diversion programmes now, rather than paying for costly settlements later.
- Use surveillance software as a tool within a staffed programme, recognising what it cannot see and pairing it with active analysis.
- Track how many cases are found proactively and how long detection takes, supported by a documented, defensible investigation process.
- Set the expectation that every controlled substance dose is accounted for, and challenge repeated "I forgot" explanations to avoid a permissive culture.
“"A quiet diversion program is almost never a clean facility. It is usually a program that is not looking."”
This episode sheds light on the personal battles against addiction, zooming in on drug diversion inside hospitals and health systems. Pharmacist Terri Vidals uses a solo, countdown-style format to walk healthcare leaders through her "Top 10" list of what really makes or breaks a diversion programme. Instead of rehashing theory, Terri focuses on the messy gap between what executives think is happening and what’s actually happening on night shifts, in theatres, and at the waste bin.
She’s blunt about one central idea: stop calling diversion a pharmacy problem. You’ll hear her argue that, "Diversion is an enterprise risk," touching nursing, anaesthesia, HR, compliance, legal, risk, security, and IT. Terri talks through why funding a proper programme now is cheaper than building one later with lawyers and regulators watching, and why buying surveillance software without protected analyst time is just a subscription, not a solution.
She urges leaders to judge programmes by what they find, not by how quiet things seem, warning that "A quiet diversion program is almost never a clean facility. It is usually a program that is not looking." The episode digs into practical questions executives rarely face head-on: Who actually owns diversion at your organisation? Could anyone in the C‑suite explain how long detection takes?
Do managers challenge "I forgot" when controlled drugs go unaccounted for, or is that quietly accepted as normal? Terri’s style is direct and conversational, with personal anecdotes from chaotic clinical shifts and a clear stance: compassion for staff with substance use disorder and zero compromise on patient safety.
She closes by reframing diversion work as a patient safety effort that happens to satisfy regulators, and by asking leaders a simple but uncomfortable question: when did your organisation last find diversion proactively? If you’re responsible for patient safety, compliance, or pharmacy, this countdown might be the reality check you’ve been avoiding—so where would your organisation land on Terri’s top 10?
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