A Langford nurse has been suspended for seven months by the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives due to patient privacy breaches and a failure to comply with earlier disciplinary terms.
In a notice posted Jan. 21, the college says Edgardo Santiago accessed patient records in 2024 and 2025 after the patients had been discharged and after he was no longer involved in their care.
The college also found Santiago breached the terms of a prior consent agreement by failing to notify BCCNM of changes to his employment circumstances as required.
Under the new consent agreement, Santiago has voluntarily agreed to a seven-month suspension of his nursing registration. He will also face a further six months of limits on his practice, including a requirement to provide monthly independent confirmation that no additional privacy concerns have arisen.
“The college views the privacy of a person’s health information as sacrosanct. Individuals have a right to assume that their information is kept private and everyone in the health care system has an obligation to protect that information,” the BCCNM said in its decision.
“Only individuals who are ‘inside the circle of care’ should access patient records as privacy of patient health information is a fundamental rule and a universal value.”
The BCCNM Inquiry Committee said it is satisfied the agreed-upon terms will address the professional and practice concerns and protect the public.
The latest disciplinary action follows an earlier case involving Santiago in 2023, when the college issued a five-month suspension after finding he falsified a medical record while working as a nurse in Victoria.
According to that earlier consent agreement, the college determined Santiago did not adequately assess a patient with a significant medical history and concerning symptoms in July 2020. He later documented that he had conducted a “fulsome assessment,” which the college said had not occurred.
As part of that 2023 agreement, Santiago was required to complete remedial education in ethics, documentation, patient relations and critical thinking, develop a learning plan, meet with a BCCNM practice consultant and undergo supervised assessments and random documentation audits upon his return to work.
The college says consent agreements are a key part of its mandate to protect the public, and those who face disciplinary action are expected to fully comply with any conditions imposed on them.