Jul 13, 2018 2 min read

Washington Health System dismissed an unspecified number of employees for inappropriately accessing patient records, a WHS official confirmed Thursday.

“People have been discharged,” said Larry Pantuso, vice president of strategy and clinical services, without elaborating further. He did not provide the number of former employees affected, say whether any or all had been replaced or specify whether the terminations were related to a single incident.

He said an internal investigation is ongoing and will take “however long it takes to be thorough and accurate.”

The Observer-Reporter reported June 18 a group of employees were suspended over possible misuse of patient records. Pantuso said at the time those staffers had access to patients’ records, but the investigation was focusing on whether the method of access was “inappropriate.” At that point, he was vague on the number of employees involved, saying it could be lower or higher than a dozen.

It is believed the fired employees violated rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

Pantuso said he could not say whether the matter was related to the death of Kimberly Dollard, 57, of Amwell Township, June 6. Dollard, an employee of WHS’ Neighbor Health Center in Washington, near Washington Hospital, was killed when a car careening out of control rammed into the building shortly after noon.

The driver, Chad Spence, 43, of Weirton, W.Va., and a person inside the building were admitted to area hospitals with injuries following the crash. Police are still investigating.

Washington Hospital is the flagship for WHS, which has a second hospital – WHS Greene – plus an outpatient center in South Strabane Township and a number of smaller facilities in the region.