New Hampshire Hospital Settles Lawsuit, Denies Wrongdoing

Exeter Hospital has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by a former nurse who said she was fired after claiming medical procedures were not being properly followed in the hospital’s endoscopy unit.

Hospital officials earlier this year denied any wrongdoing in the termination of longtime gastroenterology nurse Susan Smith of North Hampton.

Details of the settlement were sealed and both sides refused to talk about it when contacted by the Portsmouth Herald.

Smith claimed in her suit filed in October 2009 that she came under scrutiny after expressing concerns about a registered nurse being sent to another area of the hospital, which the nurse was not familiar with, to administer sedation. She also claimed to have found unsterile syringes in the unit.

Her complaints brought warnings from her superiors.