Hospital Technician Falsified Dozens Of Mammograms Because She Was Too Lazy To Do Her Job Right
The lead radiological technologist at a hospital outside of Atlanta has been accused of pushing through dozens of mammograms without proper analysis of the results because she didn’t want to deal with paperwork. Apparently there is a lot less paperwork when someone is cancer free. So instead of preparing the proper paperwork, she got on the computer, impersonated a physician and gave dozens of tests the all clear. Monster.
From The Associated Press:
The reasons she gave were vague. She told police she had personal issues that caused her to stop caring about her job, that she had fallen behind processing the piles of mammogram films that stacked up. So she went into the hospital’s computer system, assumed the identities of physicians, and gave each patient a clear reading, an investigative report says. That allowed her to avoid the time-consuming paperwork required before the films are brought to a reading room for radiologists to examine, her lawyer Floyd Buford told the AP.
Personal issues? I’m not discounting that people can go through things and become overwhelmed – but it’s terrifying to realize that if they’re in a certain profession there can be dire consequences. The tech, Rachael Rapraeger, pleaded guilty to 10 misdemeanor charges of reckless conduct and one felony charge of computer forgery. She was sentenced to serve six-months in a detention center, followed by a 10-year probation period during which she can’t work in health care. She also has to pay a $12,500 fine. Is it just me, or does this seem way too lax?
Rapraeger told police she knew what she was doing wasn’t right, but that she didn’t consider the consequences until she realized a patient with cancer had been told her scan was clear.
How could she not have realized this could happen? A doctor hadn’t even analyzed the results. An analysis showed that during the time she had worked there, she had given 1300 mammograms the all-clear. I wonder how many of these women may have actually needed treatment? One of the women found a lump “by accident” three months after having a mammogram at Rapraeger’s center in 2010. She in fact had an aggressive stage 2 breast cancer. This is what caused the tech’s work to be scrutinized. Thankfully, that woman has been cancer free since her treatment – but what would have happened had she not “accidentally” discovered the lump in her chest by brushing up against a wall at work and feeling something odd?
Another woman who had the misfortune of having her results pushed through by Rapraeger had to have her entire breast removed instead of just the lump that was found because it was found too late. Sara Bailey‘s surgery was successful but she “carries a bitterness inside her that surfaces when she talks about her experience.” No kidding.
Playing God because you are too lazy to do your job? This is unforgivable.
(photo: Samuel Micut/ Shutterstock)
