A trial between a fired nurse and her former employer, Montgomery Hospice, will likely conclude early next week in Montgomery County Circuit Court, according to attorneys involved in the case.

Three people had testified as of noon Thursday, said Lee Boothby, the plaintiff’s attorney. Boothby expects at least five additional experts to be called before the jury in the next few days, leading Judge Terrance J. McGann to warn the jury that the trial would likely last through Monday before closing arguments could be heard and deliberations begin.

The plaintiff, Susan Eynon Lark, of Silver Spring, says that she was wrongfully terminated from Montgomery Hospice of Rockville on April 14, 2007, two months after she began complaining to her supervisors about “starter packs” she said the hospice was sending to patients without consulting a doctor. The packs contained prescription medication and painkillers that should have required a doctor’s approval, Boothby said in his opening arguments to the jury Monday.

The hospice argued that the starter packs were properly distributed and Lark was fired for repeatedly disregarding warnings from her supervisors not to use a certain technique to administer medication, said Lauri E. Cleary, an attorney for Montgomery Hospice Inc., a nonprofit health care facility. Cleary argued in her opening arguments Monday that the technique Lark used was against the hospice’s policy because it was considered overly invasive and risky.

Neither Cleary nor Michael J. Neary, another attorney for the hospice, commented on the case Thursday.

Lark filed the suit under the Maryland Health Care Worker Whistleblower Protection Act, a law that protects workers from retaliation or reports of wrongdoing.

jarias@gazette.net