Surgical techs in Colorado would be subjected to increased state regulation under a pair of bills proposed in the wake of a scandal involving a drug-addicted tech who stole fentanyl syringes and infected more than a dozen patients with hepatitis C.
State Reps. Sara Gagliardi and Debbie Benefield plan to introduce legislation that would require surgical techs to register with the state's Department of Health and Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA). Another measure would require healthcare facilities to report by name techs that are fired or disciplined for irresponsible behavior and check the state's database of names to make sure potential hires haven't been flagged because of past disciplinary actions or legal troubles.
The lawmakers were motivated to act after Kristen Diane Parker, a surgical tech who stole syringes of fentanyl while working at Rose Medical Center in Denver and Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs, was sentenced on Feb. 24 to 30 years in federal prison. Ms. Parker claimed to be unaware that she was infected with hepatitis C but admitted to replacing stolen needles with used ones she had used to get high. Her actions forced about 6,000 patients to undergo testing for the incurable disease. To date, at least 18 infections have been linked to the 27-year-old former tech.
Surgical techs are the only position on the surgical team not required by Colorado law or regulations to be competent, qualified or credentialed, says Catherine Sparkman, JD, director of government affairs for the American Association of Surgical Techs. Techs are currently required to be registered in Washington state and have title protection in Illinois, she says. In Indiana, Texas, South Carolina and Tennessee, STs must be graduates of accredited surgical technology programs and certified by a nationally accredited credentialing organization.
Tech credentialing legislation has been filed in 9 states and will be initiated in several more in 2011, according to Ms. Sparkman, who supports legislation that ensures hospitals and other healthcare facilities employ only appropriately educated and certified surgical techs.
DORA, however, released a report in January that "found no evidence of widespread competency-related harm caused by surgical technologists... the current model, where employers determine the qualifications and competencies of the surgical technologists they employ, is sufficient to protect the public health, safety and welfare."
Rep. Gagliardi says she hopes to work with DORA and representatives from Family Voices of Colorado — the grassroots organization that requested the DORA review — to help them understand that the registry is the right thing to do. A registered nurse, she expresses outrage over Ms. Parker's violation of the trust patients put in their caregivers and says her recklessness went against everything healthcare professionals are trained to believe in: protecting patients. "The registry," she says, "is another safety measure to let techs know we're watching and that stealing medication is not easy to get away with."
Daniel Cook
