A former Mills-Peninsula Medical Center phlebotomist accused of reusing needles at a Palo Alto lab from 1997 to 1999 hits the courts today for final arguments in the preliminary hearing. Elaine Giorgi, 53, allegedly put 3,600 patients at risk at a SmithKline Beecham lab in Palo Alto and investigators have also looked into 12,000 other patients she worked with at other Bay Aarea labs since she became licensed in 1994.
Giorgi was caught in March 1999 when a temporary worker at the SmithKline Beecham lab noticed her washing and then re-using needles on patients. The worker also said Giorgi re-used pipettes to transfer blood between containers.
In July 1999, the state Health Services Department fined SmithKline Beecham $102,000 for deficiencies in record keeping and oversight, the company's only penalty.
After the incident, thousands of patients were notified last year, including about 350 patients at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in San Mateo and Burlingame and Laurel Medical Group in San Carlos. Many of these patients tested for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, but few cases of illness have been linked to Giorgi.
Giorgi is charged with 12 felony counts, including unsafe disposal of medical waste and assault for re-using needles on patients. She also faces a misdemeanor charge of falsifying medical records for topping off one patient's blood samples with the blood of another. The judge will decide which charges, if any, will be brought to trial. Although Giorgi admitted in 1999 to re-using needles, but she has pled not-guilty this year in the courts.
Giorgi is currently out of custody and spent one day in jail before being released on bail in March this year.
Several separate class action suits on behalf of patients have been filed, including a recent suit filed in May this year by Redwood City resident Cynthia Alexander, 51, who claims that she was infected with hepatitis C from Giorgi.
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