A Tennessee woman who posed as a nurse at assisted living communities and other locations has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud, healthcare fraud, identity theft and practicing nursing without a license.
Misty Dawn Bacon, 44, of Morristown, TN, pleaded guilty to federal and state offenses after creating phony aliases from the license numbers of real nurses to gain nursing employment, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday. She falsely claimed to hold nursing degrees from two educational institutions.
Bacon, a convicted felon, worked with at least eight healthcare providers between September 2012 and November 2018, including assisted living communities, rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, a doctor’s office and home health agencies, the Justice Department said. She reportedly had no nursing degree, no nursing licensure from the Tennessee Department of Health and no legitimate nursing experience.
Due to her lack of qualifications, Bacon “created a serious risk of injury, and even death, to patients she was treating,” according to the Eastern District of Tennessee U.S. Assistant Attorney Mac D. Heavener III’s office. At least one person required re-admittance and a three-day hospital stay as a result, the office said, adding that Bacon performed procedures she was unqualified to perform, failed to perform needed procedures that she recognized she was unqualified to perform, and failed to chart and document patient care.
Bacon’s “imposter status” gave her access to people to whom she rendered medical care, including “dispensing medications, obtaining invasive access to patient’s bodies, and becoming privy to patient’s sensitive, private medical information,” the office said.
Judge Clifton L Corker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville sentenced Bacon to 51 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
