Former Providence Hospital executive gets jail sentence for stealing $390K from medical association

A former Providence Hospital executive will serve 18 months in prison for stealing $391,600 from an association of medical professionals.

Deborah A. Morrison, 60, of Bethesda, Maryland, who held various executive positions at the District of Columbia hospital for 38 years, pleaded guilty in July in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to transportation of money taken by fraud.

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In addition to her official work duties, the Department of Justice said Morrison oversaw the bank accounts of the Providence Hospital Medical Staff, an association of medical professionals at the facility. Her role gave her access to the association’s checkbooks and, over a six-year period that began in December 2009, she wrote approximately 140 checks, totaling $391,600, from one of the association’s bank accounts containing dues payments.

Morrison admitted she endorsed the front of the checks with a signature stamp of a former president of the medical staff who no longer worked at Providence Hospital. She deposited all of the checks into her personal bank account.

Judge James E. Boasberg imposed the prison sentence, as well as three years of supervision upon her release, and also ordered Morrison to pay $391,600 in restitution and an identical amount in a forfeiture money judgment.