The former director of medical staff at Doylestown Hospital, who retired in 2021, was charged Tuesday with embezzling more than $600,000 from a hospital charitable account.
Investigators said they believe that Norma Galagarza, 68, of Chalfont, used money earmarked for charitable contributions to the community and employees in need to pay her personal taxes, real estate taxes, cell phone bills, car payments, and personal credit accounts.
A statement from the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office that was posted on its Crimewatch page said Galagarza was released on unsecured bail Tuesday following her arraignment on felony theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, access device fraud and other charges.
The investigation reportedly began in January 2022 — 10 months after Galagarza retired — when the hospital’s board of directors told authorities an account the directors didn’t know was active began generating insufficient funds charges.
Referred to as the Charitable Fund, the account was set up in 1991 by the Medical Executive Committee as an employee benevolent fund that was supported strictly by donations from physician leaders, according to the DA’s office. It had gone dormant years earlier.
"These were private funds of the independent Medical Staff, and were in no way connected to the operation of Doylestown Hospital," according to a statement Doylestown Health issued Tuesday evening. "This isolated incident has had no impact on patient care or delivery of services."
The statement stressed that when Doylestown Health discovered that funds were being "misdirected," the situation was "immediately reported to appropriate authorities."
Authorities said they identified 896 unauthorized transactions totaling $604,702.29 that began in 2008 and ceased in 2021. During that time, according to the statement, it was Galagarza’s job as director of the medical staff to manage the account and report what money was being spent.
Hospital personnel also discovered that Galagarza had changed the mailing address of the account from the hospital to her own home.
This case was investigated by detectives with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Doylestown Township Police Department. The prosecutor assigned the case is Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber, Chief of Insurance Fraud and Economic Crimes.
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