HERMISTON - The FBI has seized documents and an independent auditor's report from Good Shepherd Medical Center as part of a health care fraud investigation, agency officials said.

The FBI searched the hospital on Thursday and took personnel records, e-mails, memos, documents from consultants, documents regarding the refinancing of bonds and all billing code information, said Dennis Burke, the hospital's chief executive.

It also confiscated a summary report issued by independent auditor Price Waterhouse and a letter of no confidence drafted by hospital managers before the departure of the hospital's chief financial officer, Mark Sayler.

``The seizure was part of an ongoing health care fraud investigation,'' said Beth Ann Steele, an FBI spokeswoman in Portland. ``The search in no way jeopardized the health or safety of the hospital's patients.'' She declined to provide further details.

Burke, the hospital's chief executive officer, said he was surprised by the FBI's actions.

``The FBI hasn't told us anything specific,'' he said. ``We are as surprised about this as anybody.''

Burke said Price Waterhouse issued a report summarizing problems with the hospital's billing system sometime during the past 18 months, though he said he couldn't remember the specifics. The FBI took his only copy of the report, he said.

The audit came at the same time the hospital's managers issued a letter of no confidence against Sayler, who had been with the organization for 15 years, Burke said. Sayler resigned and now works for a hospital in Ashland.

Kelly Sanders, a hospital official, said the hospital's financial situation seemed to change after a new computer system was installed. She said the organization went from ``a hospital that was pretty solvent to having to pinch our pennies.''

``Managers wanted to know why they couldn't buy things or why they had to cut back on staff,'' she said, adding that the situation improved after Sayler left.

The 49-bed Good Shepherd Medical Center is nonprofit.

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