Former Hospital Director Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Norma Galagarza, 68, of Chalfont a former Doylestown Hospital Director entered a guilty plea to felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, forgery, access device fraud, and computer trespass. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced Galagarza to five years of probation
It was back in 1881 that the Hospital Charitable Fund was created. It;s purpose was to lend money to hospital staff in need and to make charitable contributions to the community. That fund had been bled dry according to authorities.
Sometime around 2007, the Medical Executive Committee, who oversees the Charitable Fund, stopped receiving monthly statements on the account and it eventually went dormant. It wasn’t until hospital officials began receiving the insufficient funds notices that they realized the account was still open. Hospital personnel reviewed statements from the previous year and found unauthorized account activity which included unauthorized withdrawals and deposits, totaling more than $55,000 from October 2020 to December 2021.
Hospital personnel also became aware that the mailing address of the account was changed from the hospital address to Galagarza’s home address. As the Director of Medical Staff, Galagarza was the sole person responsible for the reporting of all monies spent. Detectives obtained search warrants and analyzed Galagarza’s expenses, finding that she made approximately 896 unauthorized transactions totaling approximately $604,702.29 from 2008 to 2021.
Their analysis found that she used the hospital’s money for personal expenses. All of the money she took was paid back, authorities said.