GREELEY, Colo. -- Another Colorado nurse accused of stealing pain medication had a recorded drug problem before being hired at another hospital.

Marguerite Irene Furgerson is accused of using the names of at least three patients to get pain pills through forged prescriptions. Police said the 29-year-old former nurse at Hospice and Palliative Care of Northern Colorado wrote forged prescriptions to get more than 4,000 tablets of Vicodin or Hydrocodone over the past eight months.

Furgerson is the third health care worker this year in Colorado accused of stealing pain medications.

Furgerson has told police she is "heavily addicted" to pain killers, and she had a history of stealing pain medication before the hospice hired her.

Furgerson had previously worked for North Colorado Medical Center, where she was reported to the State Board of Nursing for taking a patient's Darvocet, another pain medication. The Greeley Tribune reported Wednesday that the state determined it was "an instance of misconduct and did not warrant formal action at the time."

Although a letter was placed in Furgerson's nursing file, it was not sent until six months after she was hired by hospice.

A spokeswoman with the Department of Regulatory Agencies said the Board of Nursing began investigating Furgerson in May of 2008, but the finding (a letter of admonition) was not made public until February of 2009.

The spokeswoman said the Board is legally not allowed to release information about an investigation and that anyone accused is innocent until proven guilty.

Still, patients' advocates said the case shows flaws in the system.

“I’m not surprised,” said Patty Skolnik, founder of Colorado Citizens for Accountability. “You have the legal system bucking up against the health system and the only ones losing are the patients.”

She said, at the very least, doctors and hospitals should have access to information about ongoing investigations to protect patients.

She said groups such as hers are working with the medical community to improve medical transparency.

A surgery technician who worked at hospitals in Denver and Colorado Springs faces federal charges of injecting herself with painkillers meant for patients, then filling the used syringes with saline solution. Kristen Diane Parker, 26, is thought to have exposed thousands of patients to hepatitis C, prompting one hospital to urge widespread tests of Parker's patients.

In that case, too, the accused medical worker had a drug record but was hired by a second facility. Parker started working at Colorado Springs' Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in May -- almost two weeks after being fired from Denver's Rose Medical Center after testing positive for the painkiller Fentanyl.

The Audubon hospital has reported hiring Parker before she was fired from Rose. Audubon officials were apparently unaware the state was investigating Parker until July 1.

Parker faces a maximum of 34 years in prison. She's due in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing on charges of tampering with a consumer product, creating a counterfeit controlled substance, and obtaining a controlled substance by deception or subterfuge.

The former Greeley nurse, Furgerson, faces identity theft charges and has been released on separate bonds totaling $15,000. Police say Furgerson is an addict who was taking up to 75 pain pills a day.

A third Colorado nurse pleaded guilty last month to stealing pain medication meant for surgical patients. Ashton Paul Daigle (DAY'-gle) of Fort Collins, 27, substituted tap water or saline solution for Fentanyl. The drug was meant for up to 290 patients at Boulder Community Hospital last year.

Daigle has tested negative for blood-borne pathogens, but all the patients have been offered free testing by the hospital. Daigle will be sentenced later this year.