First there was Kristen Diane Parker, a former Rose Medical Center surgical technician who stole painkillers in a scam that caused a still-growing number of patients to be infected with hepatitis C.

Then came nurse Marguerite Irene Furgerson at Hospice and Palliative Care of Northern Colorado, accused of forging prescriptions to get drugs for her own use.

Now add former St. Anthony Central Hospital nurse Jillian Fischer, who allegedly stole drugs and had previously been fired from Swedish Medical Center, according to 9News in a report that raises questions about background checks for medical workers. (more…)

Kristen Diane Parker, the surgical technician who allegedly stole needles filled with painkiller for ones filled with saline solution and potentially infected with hepatitis C, has just gone “viral.”

In addition to working at Rose Medical Center in Denver and a surgery center in Colorado Springs, Parker also worked recently at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York, according to 7News, triggering testing there in as many as 2,800 patients.

WPIX 11 in New York reports that Parker worked in the hospital’s operating rooms from October of 2007 to February of 2008 and that the patients who had surgery in those months should be tested for the liver-damaging hepatitis C, which Parker has.

Meanwhile, Colorado health officials are worked with Rose to change investigative procedures to fix a breach of public trust, according to The Denver Post. Other changes include new medication dispensing machines that are accessed by fingerprint scan.

Kristen Diane Parker, the self-professed needle-loving surgical tech accused of stealing syringes filled with the painkiller Fentanyl and replacing them with dirty needles and saline solution, told police she tried to hide her drug habit.

She switched needles 15 to 20 times in five months at Rose Medical Center in Denver and at Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs, according to a videotaped interview with a Denver police detective (via The Gazette).

“I didn’t want to make it obvious to everybody that I was using,” she told detective Dale Wallis, as seen in a video played in a court hearing yesterday. “I didn’t want to lose my job.” (more…)

Earlier this week, Kristen Diane Parker, a surgical technician at Rose Medical Center and another facility in Colorado Springs, found herself in the middle of a potentially massive hepatitis C outbreak after stealing liquid Fentanyl, a painkiller, and replacing what she took with used syringes filled with saline solution.

Now another health worker, nurse Marguerite Irene Furgerson, is causing a stir, this time at Hospice and Palliative Care of Northern Colorado. Furgerson is accused of using the names of several patients to get Vicodin or Hydrocodone with forged prescriptions over the last eight months, according to 7News.

Furgerson, 29, of Milliken, admitted to police that she is “heavily addicted” to the painkillers. The Greeley Tribune reports that Furgerson slipped through the cracks meant to protect patients. She previously worked at North Colorado Medical Center, where she was reported for stealing a patient’s pills; the hospice reportedly did not receive notice before it hired her because of a paperwork issue.

Meanwhile, fear has gripped many of Rose’s patients: 5,700 may have been exposed to hepatitis C, a liver-harming condition that Parker has, writes The Denver Post. State health officials have confirmed 10 cases of hepatitis C at Rose, and hundreds of other patients at the Audubon Surgery Center in the Springs could be infected, reports The Associated Press.