The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will allow a lawsuit against Pittsburgh-based UPMC to move forward. The suit claims dozens of patients were infected with hepatitis C because the health system failed to report a former worker who stole the opioid fentanyl, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Nine things to know:
1. The appellate court on June 19 upheld part of a decision reached by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in 2016 that UPMC owed a duty of care to the affected patients.
2. The majority of the court found UPMC should have reported David Kwiatkowski, a radiology technician who was fired from UPMC Presbyterian in 2008 after hospital officials found he was injecting pain medicine into his body before refilling the used syringes and returning them to the hospital's medical supplies.
3. The health system's report could have prevented Mr. Kwiatkowski from harming other patients, the court found. UPMC simply fired him, which allowed him to secure employment at other hospitals — putting those patients in jeopardy.
4. "It is reasonable," wrote Justice David N. Wecht, "to hold the view that the seasone providers involved in identifying [David] Kwiatkowski's misconduct could have anticipated that, were he to repeat his behavior elsewhere, it would create a serious risk of transmission of infectious disease." The case was argued Oct. 18, 2017.
5. Five patients and their families filed lawsuits against UPMC and Maxim Healthcare Services, the staffing agency that hired Mr. Kwiatkowski, alleging negligence after they or their loved ones contracted hepatitis C during stays at hospitals where Mr. Kwiatkowski was an employee.
6. After Mr. Kwiatkowski was fired from UPMC in 2008, he worked for at least nine other hospitals in four states over the next four years. In 2012, federal prosecutors in New Hampshire charged Mr. Kwiatkowski, alleging he infected 45 patients. One of these patients died.
Mr. Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty to these charges in August 2013 and was sentenced to 39 years in prison.
7. The patients and their families filed suit, alleging UPMC failed to report the drug diversion to the Drug Enforcement Administration within one business day — a requirement under the Controlled Substances Act. Allegheny County, Pa., Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. dismissed the lawsuits in 2013, finding UPMC did not owe a duty of care to patients in other hospitals. But the Superior Court reinstated them, which led to the appeal to the state Supreme Court by UPMC and Maxim.
8. UPMC's failure to make the required report to the DEA was a clerical error, the health system's attorney argued before the Supreme Court, according to the Post-Gazette. Even if Mr. Kwiatkowski's actions were reported, there was no way to know whether there would have been an investigation into Mr. Kwiatkowski's actions, UPMC argued.
9. But if UPMC had properly reported Mr. Kwiatkowski to the DEA as required under federal law, Justice Wecht wrote, it is possible he would have been prosecuted and would not have been able to put other patients in harm's way, since he would no longer have had access to controlled substances.
"It would be difficult to overstate the risk to public health that this case presents, and we need not do so; the sheer number of exposed patients and the potentially severe consequences of infection with hepatitis C speak for themselves," the court said.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will allow a lawsuit against Pittsburgh-based UPMC to move forward. The suit claims dozens of patients were infected with hepatitis C because the health system failed to report a former worker who stole the opioid fentanyl, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Nine things to know:
1. The appellate court on June 19 upheld part of a decision reached by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in 2016 that UPMC owed a duty of care to the affected patients.
2. The majority of the court found UPMC should have reported David Kwiatkowski, a radiology technician who was fired from UPMC Presbyterian in 2008 after hospital officials found he was injecting pain medicine into his body before refilling the used syringes and returning them to the hospital's medical supplies.
The health system's report could have prevented Mr. Kwiatkowski from harming other patients, the court found. UPMC simply fired him, which allowed him to secure employment at other hospitals — putting those patients in jeopardy.
4. "It is reasonable," wrote Justice David N. Wecht, "to hold the view that the seasoned healthcare providers involved in identifying [David] Kwiatkowski's misconduct could have anticipated that, were he to repeat his behavior elsewhere, it would create a serious risk of transmission of infectious disease." The case was argued Oct. 18, 2017.
5. Five patients and their families filed lawsuits against UPMC and Maxim Healthcare Services, the staffing agency that hired Mr. Kwiatkowski, alleging negligence after they or their loved ones contracted hepatitis C during stays at hospitals where Mr. Kwiatkowski was an employee.
6. After Mr. Kwiatkowski was fired from UPMC in 2008, he worked for at least nine other hospitals in four states over the next four years. In 2012, federal prosecutors in New Hampshire charged Mr. Kwiatkowski, alleging he infected 45 patients. One of these patients died.
Mr. Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty to these charges in August 2013 and was sentenced to 39 years in prison.
7. The patients and their families filed suit, alleging UPMC failed to report the drug diversion to the Drug Enforcement Administration within one business day — a requirement under the Controlled Substances Act. Allegheny County, Pa., Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. dismissed the lawsuits in 2013, finding UPMC did not owe a duty of care to patients in other hospitals. But the Superior Court reinstated them, which led to the appeal to the state Supreme Court by UPMC and Maxim.
8. UPMC's failure to make the required report to the DEA was a clerical error, the health system's attorney argued before the Supreme Court, according to the Post-Gazette. Even if Mr. Kwiatkowski's actions were reported, there was no way to know whether there would have been an investigation into Mr. Kwiatkowski's actions, UPMC argued.
9. But if UPMC had properly reported Mr. Kwiatkowski to the DEA as required under federal law, Justice Wecht wrote, it is possible he would have been prosecuted and would not have been able to put other patients in harm's way, since he would no longer have had access to controlled substances.
"It would be difficult to overstate the risk to public health that this case presents, and we need not do so; the sheer number of exposed patients and the potentially severe consequences of infection with hepatitis C speak for themselves," the court said.