Woman sentenced to probation in theft of patient records from Wichita surgery center

A woman who took confidential information about patients at a Wichita surgery center was sentenced to 18 months of probation for seven counts of felony computer fraud Wednesday.

April Galvan, 55, who lists her address in Mulvane, testified before a jury this summer during a week-long trial about the information breach involving 317 patients. The jury found her guilty on all counts.

Galvan took the patient information during a mass forward of e-mails from her work account to her personal Gmail account right before she was fired from Cypress Surgery Center, 9300 E. 28th St. North.

She worked at the surgery center as a business manager and was fired in June 2013. Cypress Surgery Center discovered the information breach in an audit shortly after.

During trial, Galvan said she had an inkling she might be fired. She said she feared legal backlash from Cypress about an incident that involved fraudulent insurance billing and forwarded the e-mails from her work account to her personal account to protect herself.

The surgery center houses at least 10 medical specialties, including infertility treatment. The infertility clinic was highlighted as having some of the most sensitive patient information in the case.

“This information, in the wrong hands, could be not only personally embarrassing to people, but it could be harmful to people,” David Grainger, a reproductive endocrinologist at Cypress Surgery Center, said at the sentencing hearing.

Sedgwick County District Court Judge Terry Pullman sentenced her to 18 months of probation.

Rocky Wiechman, Galvan’s defense attorney, said he plans to appeal the sentence.

Wiechman already requested a new trial and acquittal of Galvan’s charges before the sentence hearing.

Judge Eric Yost, who oversaw the trial, denied both requests.

Yost accepted a position as the legal counselor for the Sedgwick County commissioners in August, so Pullman took over Galvan’s case for sentencing.

Pullman also ordered Galvan to take a polygraph test to evaluate her truthfulness, or lack of truthfulness, about what she did with the patient information.

The sentencing won’t be finalized until after a restitution hearing, which is scheduled for Oct. 21.

Galvan does not have any prior criminal convictions, according to a presentence investigation report.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Woman sentenced to probation in theft of patient records from Wichita surgery center."