Former Queen’s official indicted

An administrator had hospital funds paid to her, court records say

As a former Queen's Medical Center administrator, Patricia M. Syling negotiated nearly $600,000 worth of consulting contracts for her employer.

But Syling did not tell Queen's that the two companies awarded the billing and collections contracts were sole proprietorships that belonged to her and might not have even performed the work, according to a federal indictment filed yesterday in U.S. District Court.

The indictment charges her with eight counts of mail fraud for each separate payment the hospital sent to her business checking account in Nashville, Tenn.

Syling worked as Queen's corporate compliance administrator from January 2001 to October 2004 and was responsible for ensuring the hospital complied with record-keeping and collection laws. She oversaw Queen's collection activities from various private health-care insurers and government agencies.

Neither Syling nor her attorney could be reached for comment.

Queen's issued eight checks ranging in amounts from $35,000 to $138,000 and had them deposited into a business checking account under "Patricia M. Cleary-Syling d/b/a Healthcare Financial & Compliance Management."

Syling allegedly used her knowledge of Queen's billing and collection practices after it converted to new computer software to further defraud the hospital, the indictment said. She was able to arrange computer access to monitor revenues received from collections on old patient accounts, the indictment alleged.