Re: Swedish Medical tech was fired by 4 hospitals, suffers from bloodborne pathogen, Feb. 20 news story.
Rocky Allen, 28, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on charges of tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit. (Denver7)
According to your article, The surgical technologist accused of stealing a powerful narcotic drug at Swedish Medical Center had been fired by four hospitals in other states, including one that dismissed him for swapping syringes.
Regulatory failures indeed threaten our community, but of pertinent concern, health care institutions (perhaps even the Navy health service) appear to have participated in propagating the damage. While the hospitals in Arizona and Seattle seem to have preferred to quietly dismiss the accused drug seeker, our community hospital administration at Swedish showed fortitude and integrity by pursuing criminal charges instead of simply firing the individual who would clearly perpetrate further assaults to satisfy his regrettable addiction.
As a physician at Swedish, I m very pleased and proud that the administration faced the maelstrom of adverse publicity not only in their own patients interest, but also to circumvent further injury. The considerable expense of testing, significant medical consequences, and embarrassing anxiety of patients and their doctors were deferred by other hospitals, but not ours.
Jason D. Sutherland, M.D., Denver
This letter was published in the Feb. 24 edition.
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