HUNDREDS PHONE HOSPITAL AFTER EX-EMPLOYEE ARRESTED

Alleged Syringe Switching May Have Left Old
Ones With Bodily Fluids

WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of former patients are flooding the phone lines
at Georgetown University Medical Center in response to allegations
that a former employee took drug-filled syringes for his own use,
leaving old ones filled with salt solution.

The hospital has 15 people answering the phones but still cannot keep
up with the volume of calls, said Dr. James Welsh, associate medical
director at the hospital.

Nearly 300 former patients have been identified as having a slim
chance of exposure to blood-borne diseases, Welsh said. About 100 of
them contacted the hospital by late Thursday, in addition to hundreds
of former patients who are not at risk, he said.

The regionwide alert is being monitored by public health officials
from Maryland, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. It comes three weeks after
hospital officials say former radiation technician, Jeffery L. Royal,
40, was arrested after a nurse caught him siphoning the drug fentanyl
from a sedated patient's medication dispensing pump, according to an
affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.

The synthetic painkiller resembles morphine and is considered highly
addictive.

Hospital security officers arrested Royal within minutes, and he was
turned over to District of Columbia police on a charge of tampering
with consumer products. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine if convicted. If serious injury or death results, the
penalties increase.

Royal, who worked at Georgetown for five months until he was arrested
by campus police Feb. 2, allegedly stole the painkillers during
radiology procedures, using techniques one medical source described as
"sleight of hand," officials said.

A nurse and a clinical manager caught him using a syringe to siphon a
sedated patient's narcotic painkiller from a medication pump,
according to court documents.

In court documents, police said Royal was carrying two syringes
containing fentanyl in his shirt pocket.

"Mr. Royal gave a videotaped confession where he stated that for some
time he had been removing liquid narcotics from medical dispensing
pumps and IVs and replacing the liquid with saline solution," the
affidavit states.

District officials notified the hospital Royal may also have swapped
new, drug-filled syringes with old ones containing the salt solution
and which may have come in contact with blood or other bodily fluids,
Welsh said.

"We are concerned one of those methods might have put some of our
patients at risk," he said.

Georgetown, in consultation with the CDC in Atlanta and D.C. health
officials, determined any risk to patients is extremely small, Welsh
said.

CDC reached a similar conclusion. "We at CDC have deemed the risk to
patients as extremely low," said Tom Skinner, an agency spokesman.

The hospital sent letters to 294 former patients who were at the
hospital and received intravenous drugs during Royal's employment,
Sept. 8, 1999, through Feb. 2, 2000. Hospital officials will call
anyone who does not respond by next week, Welsh said.

It's unknown whether Royal carries any infectious diseases. His
lawyer, Jeffery O'Toole, could not be reached for comment. He has said
his client did not put anyone at risk.

Royal previously worked at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., from
1992 to 1998. Suburban studied Royal's records after receiving a call
from Georgetown two weeks ago alerting them about the problem, said
Ronna Borenstein-Levy, a hospital spokeswoman.

"There's no information to suggest any adverse patient care issues,"
she said.

Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, Md., also determined
Royal's employment did not put any patients at risk, said Robert
Jepson, a hospital spokesman.

Jepson would not say why Royal resigned from the hospital in September
1998 after working there just six months.