The former medical staff director at Doylestown Hospital pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling more than $600,000 from a charitable account at the health care facility over a dozen years.
Norma Galagarza, 68, of Chalfont, pleaded guilty to felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, forgery, access device fraud and computer trespass.
Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced Galagarza to five years of probation.
Prior to her plea and sentencing, Galagarza paid $604,702.29, the amount prosecutors alleged she had stolen between 2008 and 2021.
Galagarza was the Director of Medical Staff for Doylestown Hospital before retiring in March 2021. Part of her job was overseeing an account, known as the Charitable Fund, established by the medical executive committee for charitable donations.
In 2007, prosecutors said, the medical committee stopped receiving monthly account statements, believing it was inactive. The address for the statements had been changed to Galagarza’s home address.
About a year after the former director retired, the hospital’s board started receiving insufficient funds charges and found more than $55,000 in unauthorized withdrawals and deposits were made between October 2020 and December 2021, prosecutors said.
In January 2022, detectives began investigating Galagarza and alleged she made 896 unauthorized transactions from the account. Prosecutors said she used the money to pay taxes and credit card bills and make car payments. She was charged in October 2023.
Hospital officials said, “This isolated incident has had no impact on patient care or delivery of services.”
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