Former Doylestown Hospital Medical Staff Director Embezzled $600K: DA

DOYLESTOWN, PA — A former Doylestown Hospital medical staff director has been charged with embezzling more than $600,000 from a hospital charitable account, authorities said.

Norma Galagarza, 68, of Chalfont, was arrested on felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property, knowledge that property is proceeds of illegal activity, forgery, access device fraud and computer trespass.

She was arraigned on Tuesday by Magisterial District Judge Mark D. Douple and released on $250,000 unsecured bail.

According to information from the Bucks County District Attorney's office, Galararza retired in March 2021. Part of her duties as the medical staff director for Doylestown Hospital was to oversee an account set up by the Medical Executive Committee for charitable donations, officials said.

"The joint investigation by Bucks County Detectives and the Doylestown Township Police Department began in January 2022 when the hospital’s Board of Directors reported they began receiving insufficient funds charges on one of their accounts they were unaware was open and discovered unauthorized activity," the District Attorney's office said.

The account, created in 1991, was established to make contributions to the community and employees in need. "It was funded strictly by donations made by physician leaders, was overseen by a committee of physicians known as the Medical Executive Committee and was managed by the Director of Medical Staff," information from the District Attorney's office said.

Galagarza was the sole person responsible for the reporting of all monies spent, officials with the DA's office said.

The Medical Executive Committee stopped receiving monthly statements on the account sometime in 2007, authorities said, and it eventually went dormant. Hospital officials began receiving the insufficient funds notices, leading them to discover the account was still open.

Hospital personnel reviewed statements from the previous year and found unauthorized account activity totaling more than $55,000 from October 2020 to December 2021.

Detectives later 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.

Doylestown Health issued the following statement regarding the investigation and the arrest of Galagarza.

"Last year, Doylestown Health discovered an unauthorized account to which benevolent medical staff funds were being misdirected. The matter was immediately reported to the appropriate authorities.

"These were private funds of the independent medical staff and were in no way connected to the operation of Doylestown Hospital. This isolated incident has had no impact on patient care or delivery of services," said the statement.