Recently, a surgical technician who worked in both a local hospital and a Colorado Springs surgery center was sentenced to 30 years in prison after she exposed thousands of patients to hepatitis C by using syringes on herself and then returning them for use in patient care.
When malicious drug addicts use a medical setting to seek out drugs for their personal abuse, they violate the sacred trust between a patient and a health care provider. We need every tool possible to catch them in the act and prevent them from working with patients again.
Although such incidents are rare, we want to implement additional tools so that the state, in collaboration with hospitals and surgery centers, can ensure patient safety.
This week, we introduced new legislation that will assist in identifying dangerous health care workers more quickly. Those offenders should never have a second chance to endanger patients. Once they are caught, the public and employers will be put on notice and future prospective employers be notified of their criminal actions.
Our bill will require surgical technicians to be registered with the state before working with patients. Employers must verify with the state that a prospective employee’s registration is in good standing before he/she can start working in an operating room. Additionally, if an employee is fired or disciplined, the employer must report this information to the state within two weeks. The legislation will help ensure hospitals and surgery centers do not inadvertently hire surgical technicians with a criminal background or with a history of jeopardizing patient safety. Additionally, the legislation will allow employers to share information with other potential employers concerning impaired work function, drug diversion, patient abuse and violent crimes.
This will be the first time that surgical techs will have to register with the state — just like occupational therapists and most other medical professionals who have contact with patients and access to narcotics. This is an important new requirement that will help the state more quickly identify problems and will provide the tools necessary to help prevent a technician from being hired by another facility once a problem is exposed. The database of registered surgical technicians will be available to the public online.
Currently, licensed health care facilities already are required to report misuse of drugs by employees to the State Health Department. For the first time, the name of any health care worker found to be involved in a drug diversion incident must be reported. This additional information will help connect the dots as the department investigates a technician’s behavior.
Our proposed legislation will help put a stop to repeat offenders who move from facility to facility seeking drugs. If the bill had been in place a few years ago, we could have caught the recently sentenced surgical technician before she exposed so many innocent victims and denied them their pain medication.
This legislation puts us ahead of most states in the US – in fact, only six states regulate surgical technicians. Once enacted, the legislation will allow the Department of Public Health and Environment and the Department of Regulatory Agencies to work together to minimize harm to patients from criminals and unsafe workers seeking employment in the health care system.
Six thousand patients should never have been exposed to hepatitis C from one single surgical technician. Over 30 Coloradans should not have to live with hepatitis C for the rest of their lives. And no one should have to worry about contracting a disease while undergoing surgery.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
