Doctors, medical staff on drugs put patients at risk

Doctors, medical staff on drugs put patients at risk
By Peter Eisler 

A single addicted health care worker who resorts to “drug diversion,” the official term for stealing drugs, can endanger thousands. Nearly 8,000 people in eight states needed hepatitis tests after David Kwiatkowski, an itinerant hospital technician, was caught injecting himself with patients’ pain medicine and refilling the syringes with saline. He infected at least 46, mostly in New Hampshire.

It was the third hepatitis outbreak since 2009 linked to a health care worker using patients’ syringes (the others were in Denver and Jacksonville, Fla). And for each of those worst-case scenarios, there are countless more practitioners whose drug-related errors are more isolated — a botched surgery, an incorrect dose of medication, a worrisome vital sign missed.

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