An employee at a Coralville nursing home was arrested Saturday and accused of giving a patient nearly six times the prescribed amount of medication to sedate her.

Sandra Price-Elder, 69, is charged with possession of a harmful substance, a felony; gross neglect of a resident of a health care facility, an aggravated misdemeanor; and adult dependent abuse, a serious misdemeanor.

According to a criminal complaint, management at Brown Deer Place in Coralville received a report that Price-Elder was seen with an oral medication syringe that had nearly six times the amount of medication prescribed for the patient being treated. Further investigation revealed that the drug was ordered more often than necessary.

Price-Elder admitted in an interview with police that he regularly gave the patient a higher dose starting in April to “sedate her and make it easier for the defendant,” the complaint states.

Price-Elder was being held in the Johnson County Jail but was released Monday morning on $2,500 bond after her first court appearance on the charges.

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