Regional Medical Center probing racially charged social media post

SAN JOSE >> Regional Medical Center is investigating a racially charged social media post that appears to have been written by its interim emergency department manager, a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday.

In the post, the author — identified as “Beth Laurine” — expresses disgust for “immigrants from other countries” who kneel when “The Star-Spangled Banner” is played.

“I am sure the US is giving you housing, food stamps, free healthcare and education for your children and this is how you feel!” she wrote. “Go back to your nasty country!!! Dirty illegals!”

The last two words were later edited out of the post.

Twitter user @schmeezus tweeted both versions of the post, adding, “Interesting thoughts by the ER Manager at Regional Medical Center.”

The tweet drew a swift response from the hospital.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” the hospital said in a reply. “We are handling this internally. Please note, the views expressed do not represent the hospital or the care we provide. We are committed to providing compassionate, quality care to everyone who enters our facility.”

Apparently besieged with calls, the hospital requested in a follow-up tweet that its line be left open for emergencies.

A Regional Medical Center spokeswoman confirmed the hospital is probing the social media post, but she would not say if a person named Beth Laurine worked there.

However, someone with that name claims on LinkedIn to have worked as an interim emergency department manager for HealthTrust Workforce Solutions in San Jose since April. HealthTrust, a provider of clinical and non-clinical health care staffing and recruiting services, is an affiliate of Hospital Corporation of America, which is an affiliate of the hospital.

“Quick to learn, easy to adapt,” the LinkedIn profile for Beth Laurine said. “My objective is to keep on learning and keeping up to date with today’s changing health care.”

She could not be immediately reached for comment.