Exeter Hospital Tech Had 'Open Lesions'

Kwiatkowski worked at Exeter between April, 2011 and May, 2012, when he was suspended, according to the U.S. Attorney's affidavit.

The charges against Kwiatkowski have prompted 11 hospitals in eight other states where he worked in recent years to scour their records for his negative infectious disease test results. Those who cannot ascertain he was not infected at that time are trying to find patients to get them back in for testing.

Because he had been let go from two other hospitals prior to his hire by a staffing company for work at Exeter, the issue raises questions about why Kwiatkowski was never reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, or if he was, why his behavior escaped notice by future employers.

Numerous lapses
The CMS complaint survey released Thursday catalogues a slew of other drug safety and infection control lapses at Exeter Hospital.

According to the report, the hospital had no policy for cleaning glucometers, devices used for measuring blood glucose, in between patients; some units cleaned them only after they were used in precaution rooms while one unit indicated the cleanings were done in the morning and at night.

Contact precautions also were not routinely observed by hospital staff, the report said. During the survey visit, investigators observed a staff member "in a patient's room with the contact precaution sign outside the patient's door. The staff member as wearing a lab coat and was standing next to the patient's bed and did not have any contact precaution gear on." The staff member was identified as someone from physical therapy.