Man sentenced for hospital theft

A 42-year-old man who admitted stealing $644,000 worth of inventory from Sacred Heart Medical Center and selling the items on eBay was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in prison.

Kevin L. Ruff, of Spokane, will be eligible for release in about nine months. He was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle to report to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Last December, Ruff pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud, four counts of theft of property and assets of a health care benefit program and four counts of money laundering.

The charges related to Ruff’s criminal conduct while he was employed as a “material supervisor” in the Central Distribution Department at Sacred Heart Medical Center, said U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt.

As supervisor, Ruff had responsibility for receiving, warehousing, distributing and re-ordering inventory for the large medical center. He had access and authority to record receipt of inventory, to modify purchase orders and to make adjustments to the medical center’s internal inventory account.

He stole items from the inventory and then made “materially false adjustment” in the accounting system. The items – including medical supplies, such as glucose strips and sensor oximeters, as well as office supplies – were sold on eBay between January 2002 and October 2005, court documents said.

“This prosecution is a reflection of the ongoing commitment by the United States Attorney’s Office, as well as the FBI, to ferret out and aggressively prosecute health care fraud cases in the Eastern District of Washington,” McDevitt said.