DENVER -- Rose Medical Center wanted to begin sending letters to patients who may have been exposed to hepatitis C as early as June 15, but officials with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment asked the hospital to wait, the CALL7 Investigators have learned.

Officials with Rose Medical Center told CALL7 Investigator Theresa Marchetta that on June 15, "We were preparing to send letters. [CDPHE] said it was still early to do that because the state epidemiologists had not been able to meet with and speak with their initial 'cluster' beyond 2 or 3 people and still needed to interview or test others."

In an e-mail to 7NEWS, a spokesman for CDPHE said, “A few day swing in the timing of the notification letter made no difference in protecting people from possible exposure.”

The timeline is significant because Kristen Parker, the woman police say admitted to switching syringes leaving patients exposed to dirty needles, had obtained a job at the Audubon Surgical Society on May 4th and was still working at the Colorado Springs facility on June 15.

In fact, she worked at Audubon for nearly a week after Rose Medical Center wanted to notify patients and her official employment at Audubon did not end until June 26, when the state health department first notified the facility of its investigation.

"Would that have made a difference to the Audubon Surgery Center?" Marchetta asked the surgery center spokesman Joe Hodas.

"We certainly would have terminated the employee the minute we were aware of the situation. The window in which patients would have been exposed would have been shortened based on the amount of time she would have been working with us," said Hodas.

He said Parker was terminated as soon as Audubon learned of the state investigation.

Hodas told 7NEWS, Audubon does not conduct criminal background checks as part of their routine hiring procedure for surgical techs.

Parker was not charged with the drug diversion until June 30, so at the time she was hired at Audubon a background check would have shown nothing and state health officials did not make a public plea for potentially infected patients to be tested until July 2.

Denver police, in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Agency, had been investigating the theft and diversion of drugs at Rose Medical Center since March.

Parker was fired from Rose Medical Center in late April.

She is now facing federal drug charges and was denied bond in a court hearing on Thursday.

7NEWS has contacted officials with the CDPHE to further clarify its decisions and the timing of the notification letters. We have not received a response.