GA hospital being sued for falsifying COVID results

[Laura PourMeADrink]

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/investigations/the-reveal/ga-nurses-file-lawsuit-against-athens-hospital/85-69de7fcf-0959-45fa-bf25-61385230fe84

Author: Lindsey Basye, Andy Pierrotti
Published: 10:12 PM EDT June 18, 2020
Updated: 12:48 AM EDT June 19, 2020

ATHENS, Ga. — At least four nurses at a critical care hospital in Athens have accused the facility of creating a scheme to falsify COVID-19 test results.

In court documents filed this week, the nurses claimed Landmark Hospital in Athens intentionally manipulated test results to cover up an outbreak at the facility.

One former and one current Landmark nurse agreed to tell 11Alive how the hospital allegedly does it. Both agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

“When they had someone who would turn out positive, they would re-do the test so that it would come back negative and they would say that it was a false positive,” explained one of the nurses

More at link

[marybourg]

1. I hope they have a better technical explanation than:

“they would re-do the test so that it came back negative”.

[Mariana]

7. If you read the story, they explain how it was done. nt.

[Mike 03]

2. This doesn't instill great confidence in the tests

if you can give two, three of them and almost guarantee that you get conflicting results. It's also a waste of tests (although what good are they if they are this error-prone?).

But the lawsuit is great news!

[stillcool]

6. the article said that if someone tested positive....

they were told to swab the throat, and those samples were submitted to a lab that only tested nasal swabs, guaranteeing they would be negative. it's pretty messed up. Once they started testing correctly, and the positive results came back, they were not allowed to do testing anymore.

[Ilsa]

11. THIS!!! This is how they cheated!!! nt

the article said that if someone tested positive....

they were told to swab the throat, and those samples were submitted to a lab that only tested nasal swabs, guaranteeing they would be negative. it's pretty messed up. Once they started testing correctly, and the positive results came back, they were not allowed to do testing anymore.

[Mariana]

8. Nothing in this story indicates a problem with the tests. nt.

[Freddie]

3. Interesting

RWNJs think hospitals are exaggerating the numbers to make MORE cases so they make more $$. Idiots.

[Hav]

4. It depends

In the early stages, there were several stories about how unreliable some of the tests were with some giving a false result almost 50% of the time for a certain outcome.
If it is far more likely to get a false positive than a false negative, then it makes sense to test again and have more confidence in one of the outcomes than the other.

[Mariana]

9. In this story, they are deliberately sabotaging the tests.

They're performing the tests incorrectly to ensure a negative result.

[Hav]

10. Looks like it

I can't open the link and had to find another site. I initially only judged it from the quoted parts. But everything about what is alleged sounds indeed extremely criminal with consequences not only for the patients in their care and their staff but also for those in other facilities.

[pandr32]

5. This is likely happening elsewhere