PROBE OF THERAPISTS IN JEOPARDY; HOSPITAL, POLICE NOT SHARING RECORDS WITH STATE PANEL.

Byline: Beth Barrett Daily News Staff Writer

Secrecy and interagency squabbling that's permeated the investigation of a former Glendale respiratory therapist who confessed to up to 50 mercy killings is threatening the review of four other therapists' licenses, the Daily News has learned.

Glendale Adventist Medical Center, citing privacy considerations and a police investigation, has rebuffed the state's request for names and records of the therapists who were fired a week after Efren Saldivar's alleged confession was disclosed in late March.

Saldivar told police that ``he felt encouraged by other respiratory therapists'' at the hospital who ``sometimes gave him room numbers of patients who needed lethal injections,'' and sometimes provided him with paralyzing drugs, according to documents filed by the Attorney General's Office in revoking his license.

Saldivar later recanted his statements during two television appearances.

This week, Glendale Police Department officials also refused to provide the information to the California Respiratory Care Board, the regulatory arm charged with ensuring the public's safe respiratory care, officials said.

Deputy Attorney General Gloria A. Barrios, said the records are important in determining the gravity of the circumstances that led to the firing of the other therapists, and whether or not their employment at other medical centers could be a public concern.

``They should provide the information to make sure that everything is OK now,'' she said. ``They could be working elsewhere.''

Medical center spokesman Mark Newmyer said the facility is acting on legal advice that providing the names to the licensing board could violate the therapists' privacy. He said the information has been given to the police.

But licensing actions are not made public until the Respiratory Care Board determines there is reason to investigate further and refers a case to the Attorney General's Office, said board spokesman Jay Van Rein.

Barrios said Glendale police refused to release the records earlier this week, citing their criminal investigation, one that could drag on for months or more.

Police spokesman Sgt. Rick Young said ``the department needs time to investigate. To put this into the public domain, to glorify it, is not going to help.''

Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Glendale, who is sponsoring AB 123 that would require hospitals to provide the licensing board with therapists' records - whether a criminal investigation is pending or not - questioned the decision to withhold the documents.

``The logic doesn't sound too compelling to me,'' he said. ``I think oversight is extremely important. If we have a case where someone is suspected of wrongdoing, it shouldn't just be local law enforcement, but also the state if they feel they should be involved.''

Barrios said that even without the new law, she believes that existing regulations permit hospitals to release records.

According to earlier documents filed in Saldivar's licensing case, a respiratory therapist described seeing unauthorized vials of morphine and a paralyzing drug in Saldivar's locker. He also described a conversation during which another therapist said that Saldivar had a ``magic syringe.''

The hospital and police both tried to seal the Saldivar investigation altogether from the outset, claiming public disclosure would impede a difficult inquiry and foment a ``media frenzy.'' But, elements of his confession were entered as part of a successful emergency plea by the Attorney General's Office that an administrative law judge pull his license.

Barrios said the respiratory board will decide whether to continue to pursue release of the additional records.