COLORADO SPRINGS — When Kristen Diane Parker interviewed for a job at the Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in Colorado Springs in April, she requested that her employer in Denver not be contacted because she still worked there, an Audubon spokesperson said Friday.
The scrub technician, who was charged Thursday with swapping syringes that may have exposed as many as 5,700 patients to hepatitis C, had been placed on administrative leave twice at Rose Medical Center in Denver and had tested positive for fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, before losing her job.
“She had not been fired at the time that we had hired her,” said Joe Hodas, a representative for Audubon.
Parker resigned from Rose on April 20, but the hospital refused to accept her resignation and instead fired her. She worked at Audubon from May 4 until Monday. Audubon granted Parker’s request not to contact Rose Medical Center but did conduct a standard employment drug test that detects marijuana and other common drugs. But the test fails to identify more unusual drugs like fentanyl. The Gazette
