The possibility of homicide occurring at the hands of health care providers is unthinkable
to most people. That is particularly true of those of us in the medical profession.
Ironically, the failure of health care workers to consider a coworker as a murderer
has caused delays in the recognition of those deaths as homicides and subsequently
delayed the termination of further murders. There is a paucity of medical literature
on this subject. When patient homicide is discovered, individuals and institutions
are reticent to document it for fear of damage to their reputations and increased
exposure to litigation. Although such events appear to be rare, it is safe to assume
that more homicides occur than are known, and many more occur than are reported in
the medical literature. In fact, the major source for such information is to be found
in books and electronic media about serial killers. As a result, it must be noted
that this article often reflects undocumented details of specific incidents. For the
health care professional, the purpose of this article is to heighten awareness and
to demonstrate that there are definite patterns to the personalities and methods in
these events. Six past medical serial killers have been chosen for review to highlight
those patterns and methods.
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