Avon Boarding School Nurse Disciplined In Drug Case

Information via Connecticut Health I-Team/image via Shutterstock

AVON, CT - An Avon Old Farms School nurse was fined $5,000 today by the state Board of Examiners for Nursing for inappropriately prescribing controlled substances to herself, family members and friends 42 times.

Lenore Leone of Avon, an advanced practice registered nurse, who works at the private school under her married name, Lenore Severni, prescribed the drugs for herself and seven friends and relatives from 2014 to 2017, a consent order she agreed to said. The board also reprimanded her license.

From 1992 to 2017, Leone also practiced and prescribed controlled substances without having a collaboration agreement with a doctor, as state law requires, the order said. Under the order, Leone must enter into an agreement with a doctor.

In August, the board had rejected a $2,500 fine against Leone, with some members saying the fine was too low.

In separate action with the state Department of Consumer Protection in 2017, Leone agreed not to prescribe controlled substances for herself, her family or friends except in an emergency, the order said.

In signing the order, Leone admitted no wrongdoing but chose not to contest the allegations. In a June 29 letter to the board, her attorney, Adam Carter Rose of Hartford, wrote that Leone has already established a formal relationship with a doctor. She was about to retire as the school’s director of nursing but was asked to continue working there on a part-time basis, he wrote.

“Above all, Lenore wishes to make clear that she takes this situation very seriously and is dedicated to practicing at the highest standard of care,’’ Rose wrote.

Robert A. Orenstein, the school’s chief financial officer, said the nurse is a longtime, “valued staff member” who works part time as an APRN in its health center. He said the board’s action is between her and the board and he declined to comment on it.