Claremont — Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway said on Thursday that authorities will investigate whether a former Valley Regional Hospital physician accused of sexual misconduct also sexually assaulted a patient.

Dr. Eric Knight, who was fired in June by the Claremont hospital, recently had his license suspended by the New Hampshire Board of Medicine. The board cited evidence of sexual misconduct and Knight’s failure to comply with the board’s opioid prescribing rules.

One of Knight’s patients told a board investigator that he had repeatedly raped her, including in the men’s locker room at Valley Regional Hospital, an accusation law enforcement officials in Sullivan County were unaware of until it was reported by the Valley News and other newspapers on Tuesday.

“We intend to look into the matter and try to identify the people who he has allegedly abused,” Hathaway said of himself and Claremont police.

Meanwhile, Valley Regional Hospital CEO Peter Wright said his community is “shocked” about the allegations.

Wright himself recruited and hired Knight less than two years ago from Elliot Primary Care in Londonderry, N.H.

“Our organization is in a bit of shock. This is somebody who we trusted. This was somebody who we worked with. We had no idea,” Wright said on Thursday. “Everybody knows everybody here. We are a small hospital.”

Knight told Wright about his relationship with a patient, at which point the hospital began the process that led to Knight’s termination and license suspension, according to the emergency license suspension order. Wright said he didn’t go to the prosecutor or police about the situation because of legal advice he received.

He said he didn’t hear about the sexual assault allegations until the order came out.

There is a chance that the hospital never would have learned about the situation if Knight hadn’t come forward, Wright said. Unless the hospital started monitoring people’s behavior outside of work, he said, learning of allegations such as these would be difficult.

“We will continue to think about what we could have done better,” Wright said.

Knight is scheduled to appear before the board of medicine on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether his conduct violated the American Medical Association’s code of ethics, along with state law.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.