Three medical facilities in Washington state are warning former patients they should be tested for HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B because a surgical technologist with an alleged history of drug theft may have exposed them to infection.
More than 1,300 patients at Northwest Hospital & Medical Center, where Rocky Allen worked for about three months ending in March 2012, received a safety notice this week.
Two other medical facilities in the Seattle area where Allen worked also are in the process of notifying patients, but authorities with the Washington Department of Health have not yet identified those facilities.
Allen was fired from Northwest after working there from December 2011 through March 2012.
The warnings in Washington follow the recent indictment on drug theft charges of the former surgical technologist at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood. Allen is carrying a bloodborne pathogen, according to court testimony.
Federal prosecutors allege Allen stole a syringe filled with fentanyl from an operating room while working at Swedish and swapped it with a syringe filled with something else.
other hospitals, including Northwest, before his hiring in August at Swedish. He had been in 2011 while enlisted with the Navy in Afghanistan.
Swedish fired him last month and urged about 2,900 former patients who had surgery while Allen worked there to undergo testing to determine if they were infected. The hospital has not disclosed any test results.
Three other hospitals in Arizona and California also are offering free blood tests to former patients.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747, cosher@denverpost.com or @chrisosher
