CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire judge says public health officials must be granted broad access to patient records tied to the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital.
The hospital wanted to block access to the records unless investigators were more specific in their requests. It argued that it would be violating both state and federal law if it provided unfettered access to its records system, but a Merrimack County Superior Court judge on Thursday sided with the state.
Former hospital worker David Kwiatkowski has been charged with stealing drugs from the hospital's cardiac catheterization unit and replacing them with tainted syringes that were later used on patients. Thirty-two Exeter Hospital patients have been found to have the same strain of the liver-destroying virus Kwiatkowski carries.
