Charges have been dropped against a local doctor accused of stealing drugs from a hospital operating room, and the hospital is taking heat for the way it tried to uncover the theft.
The Medical Board of California has dropped drug theft charges against Dr. Adam Dorin, a former anesthesiologist at Sharp Grossmont Hospital accused of stealing sedatives from a Women’s Health Center operating room.
Court records show that in May 2012, Sharp Grossmont officials suspected that anesthetic drugs were being lifted from operating room drug carts. Two months later, the hospital installed surveillance cameras inside the operating rooms where doctors perform cesarean sections on pregnant women.
Dorin, who was the only doctor charged during the year-long surveillance sting, was seen on camera taking drugs from an operating room cart and returning the drugs the very same day.
His attorney says that the video also shows other doctors taking drugs from carts and using them in other rooms where they were needed.
“In all the articles, Dorin was just getting slandered,” Dorin’s attorney Duane Admire said. “Sharp was saying ‘We caught a drug thief, we did this to catch a drug thief.’ Well, he wasn’t a drug thief.”
Now the hospital is facing a civil lawsuit, not on behalf of Dorin, but on behalf of the patients who say their privacy was violated when they were unknowingly recorded.
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Sharp Grossmont did not have any comment related to the ongoing lawsuit, but did release the following statement regarding the decision of the state medical board:
“Sharp Healthcare is pleased that the Medical board of California has made progress on the investigation of Dr. Dorin and Grossmont Hospital. We are confident that the Board conducted a thorough evaluation and support their decision on this matter.”
