INMATES MAY NOT HAVE BEEN RETESTED AFTER MEDICAL TEST COMPANY FAKED RESULTS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A California medical lab that tested thousands of
inmates for diseases like AIDS and hepatitis faked test results, and there
is little evidence that inmates were retested, according to records
obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.

B.C.L. Clinical Labs conducted tests on inmates from at least seven state
prisons before being shut down by health inspectors in May 1997 after a
surprise inspection. The December 1996 inspection revealed that lab workers
were simply making up results on vital medical tests and typing them into a
computer, according to federal and state documents obtained by the Chronicle.

"Basically, we caught them with their hand in the cookie jar," said Tom
Barr, a California Department of Health Services investigator.

Inspectors also found the lab, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa
Fe Springs, to be filled with idle, shoddy equipment, records show. The
federal Department of Health and Human Services revoked B.C.L.'s license
and fined the lab $20,000, but the company's owner and manager, Pareena
Ahkter and her brother Ayazur Rahman, are believed by investigators to have
fled the country shortly after the surprise inspection.

Seven state prisons received notices from federal regulators in March 1997
warning that problems at B.C.L. could mean patients were in "immediate
jeopardy."

Lab results "may not represent an accurate diagnosis of your patients'
condition and may require immediate follow-up, particularly in the area of
Pap smears and HIV testing," the notice said.

Yet since March, when the Chronicle first inquired into the matter, the
state Department of Corrections has been unable to produce records showing
that the state prison system took any steps to retest those prisoners whose
results were suddenly called into question.

Dr. Donna Wilson, of the DOC's Health Care Services division, said there
were no directives from top state prison officials requiring retesting,
because medical decisions are delegated to each prison. She believes
retesting did occur, however.

"What I hope we will be able to document is that they did undergo an
organized approach to appropriately retest," Wilson told the Chronicle.

Chuckawalla Valley State Prison medical officials say they sent some test
samples to be reprocessed at local hospitals after doctors learned of the
B.C.L. problems, but were unable to provide any documentation of retests.

"Everyone, from the doctors and nurses on down, was fully aware of the
problem with B.C.L.," said Dr. John Culton, chief medical officer at
Chuckawalla. "We'd gotten to the point where we were looking for errors and
were retesting anything that seemed necessary."

Dr. Corey Weinstein, a San Francisco physician who consults with advocacy
groups on prison medical issues, said it's unlikely retesting occurred at
every prison.

"If it's not in the charts, it didn't happen," he said. "Medical
professionals are taught: You write everything down."

Weinstein said prison medical staffs are "demoralized," and "are not
involved with the patients in a way that would protect them from this kind
of malfeasance by another provider."

The seven prisons that were warned about faked B.C.L. test results were the
Northern California Women's Facility in Stockton; Calipatria State Prison
in Calipatria; Lancaster State Prison in Los Angeles; Chuckawalla Valley
State Prison and Ironwood State Prison in Blythe; Central California's
Women's Facility in Chowchilla; and Deuel Vocational Institute in Tracy.