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An Iowa nurse accused of stealing patient medications from more than a dozen maternity patients at two Iowa hospitals has agreed to surrender her license.
Amber Herzmann, 44, who worked at hospitals in Clinton and West Des Moines, recently reached a settlement agreement on disciplinary charges brought by the Iowa Board of Nursing.
According to the board, Herzmann was working at an Iowa hospital in early 2024 when it was reported that she was stealing medications, including Oxycodone and fentanyl, from multiple patients.
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Herzmann was criminally charged with nine felony counts of prohibited acts involving controlled substances and one count of tampering with records. Prosecutors, who allege she stole the medications from maternity patients at Clinton’s Mercy Hospital, recently agreed to a plea deal, although court records provide conflicting information as to the specifics.
Herzmann’s signed plea deal indicates she has pleaded guilty to a single count of tampering with records, while the court order related to that plea suggests she has pleaded guilty to one count each of tampering with records and prohibited acts. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 2, 2025.
That case is one of two pending criminal matters involving Herzmann. Twenty days before the criminal charges were filed in the Clinton County case, Herzmann was charged in Dallas County with 13 counts of felony prohibited acts and 13 counts of tampering with records. In that case, police allege that Herzmann, while working on the maternity floor at UnityPoint Health’s Methodist West Hospital in West Des Moines, stole fentanyl belonging to numerous patients.
Methodist West later reported a loss of 14 vials of fentanyl and two syringes of hydromorphone, classifying the loss as a potential theft, according to state records.
Dallas County prosecutors recently agreed to a plea deal in which Herzmann has pleaded guilty to two counts each of felony prohibited acts and tampering with records. She is expected to be sentenced on Oct. 3, 2025, one day after her sentencing in the Clinton County case.
In 2024, the Board of Nursing filed disciplinary charges against Herzmann as a result of the Dallas County thefts, but settled the matter in March of this year by requiring Herzmann to enroll in the Iowa Practitioner Health Program, which assists nurses with substance abuse issues.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Herzmann, who now lives in Erie, Ill., for comment.