Plea deal: Hospitals failed to communicate to stop addicted worker

A plea deal with a former New Hampshire hospital employee accused of infecting patients with hepatitis C shows for the first time how little hospitals communicated with each other to stop him, the Boston Globe reported last week on its White Coat Notes blog. Prosecutors say David Kwiatkowski, 34, a Michigan native who ultimately worked in 19 hospitals in eight states, caused at least 45 patients to be infected with hepatitis C.

The plea deal shows Kwiatkowski’s scheme started as early as 2002 while he was being trained in Michigan, and at least four hospitals in the Detroit and Ann Arbor area (where he received his earliest jobs) knew of his drug problems and terminated him, but clearly did not warn other hospitals where he went to work, the Globe reported. Kwiatkowski subsequently left Michigan and began working as a temporary employee through various healthcare employment agencies across the country.