A news report indicates that former New Hampshire radiologic technologist David Kwiatkowski was investigated in 2006 in Michigan on suspicion that he stole fentanyl while working for the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.
The website AnnArbor.com reported on August 30 that Kwiatkowski was suspended from his job at the university in December 2006 after an investigation into the theft of a vial of fentanyl. The university hospital was one of a number of facilities across the U.S. that Kwiatkowski worked at as a traveling technologist over the years.
Kwiatkowski was arrested last month on charges that he stole fentanyl from the cardiac cath lab at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire; he is also suspected of exposing hundreds of patients to the same strain of hepatitis C with which he was infected. The case has raised questions about the adequacy of the certification and monitoring process for allied healthcare workers.
The article states that Kwiatkowski was interviewed by the university's department of public safety, but he wasn't considered a suspect "because there wasn't enough information to turn the case over to the prosecutor's office," according to a university spokesperson. He resigned from the job during the investigation.
Kwiatkowski was terminated from jobs in Pennsylvania and Arizona in the years prior to his employment at Exeter Hospital, but he was never prosecuted nor sanctioned by any certification body until the New Hampshire case came to light. The AnnArbor.com article states that he worked at six Michigan hospitals between 2003 and 2007.
