Woman fired after posing as nurse at Kingston, Ont. hospital

A Kingston, Ont. hospital has fired a woman who used forged documents to pose as a registered nurse for six months.

The woman used false information to claim to be a registered nurse, Kingston Health Sciences Centre said in a news release. She worked primarily in the Kingston General Hospital's post-surgical unit from July 22, 2022 to Jan. 27 of this year.

"This individual undertook significant efforts to fraudulently gain employment with KHSC including providing extensive forged documentation of their qualifications and credentials,” Jason Hann, executive vice-president of patient care and chief nursing executive, said in the release.

Hann said the fraud was discovered during a routine check with the College of Nurses of Ontario. The check turned up that the woman was not registered with the college.

"We quickly took action to end the individual’s employment," he said. The hospital has launched an investigation and has also notified the college and Kingston police and will fully cooperate with any investigation by those agencies, the release said.

The hospital is also reviewing its hiring practices to prevent such an incident from happening again.

“We are in the process of reviewing our hiring and onboarding process to ensure there are not gaps in our systems that would allow for another incident to occur in the future,” Sandra Carlton, the hospital's executive vice-president and chief human resources officer, said. “While we believe this is a truly unique scenario, we will use this as an opportunity to strengthen our processes to the fullest extent possible to ensure it will not happen again.”

Along with her work in the post-surgical unit, the woman worked some shifts elsewhere between Dec. 1 and Jan. 27, the hospital said, includingin the Admission and Transfer Unit (ATU) and the following other units: Connell 10, Kidd 9, Connell 9, Davies 5, Kidd 5, Kidd 4, Johnson 3, Kidd 3, and Connell 3.

The hospital's investigation will focus on the impact on patients and their families, the release said.

"The hospital is currently in the process of contacting individual patients and families who were cared for by the former employee, to provide more direct information on its findings," the release said.

“We understand the stress and anxiety this news may cause for our patients and other KHSC staff. We will work directly with the impacted patients, families, and staff to address their concerns,” says Dr. David Pichora, the hospital's president and CEO.

“We are committed to speaking with each individual that reaches out to us using the contact information that has been provided to the patients who have been impacted.”

Any patients that has concerns can contact KHSC’s Patient Relations team at [e-mail] 613-549-6666, extension 4158.