A dispute between the creditors of two bankrupt hospitals — Florence (Ariz.) Hospital at Anthem and Gilbert (Ariz.) Hospital — has prevented more than 300 patients from accessing their medical records, according to a report from The Arizona Republic.
Six things to know:
1. Both hospitals and their parent company, New Vision Health, entered bankruptcy in late May 2018 and closed their doors in June 2018 with little notice. The court appointed a receiver, Resolute Commercial Services, to manage affairs after the closure.
2. A disagreement over payment between Resolute; Indigo-DLI Holdings, a New York investment company and the hospitals' senior creditor; Medhost, a company that maintained the hospitals' EHRs; and Somerset Capital Group, which provided computer servers to host the EHRs, has left patients without access to their medical records, according to The Arizona Republic.
3. The report highlights 21-year-old Florence Hospital patient Caitlin Secrist, who has life-threatening pancreatitis. Ms. Secrist is seeking a surgery to remove her pancreas, spleen and appendix — a total pancreatectomy with autologous islet transplantation — at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Her surgeon will not move forward with the surgery until he has access to her full medical history, including her early scans from Florence Hospital to ensure her diagnosis is correct, according to the report.
4. However, the EHR is currently deactivated and cannot be reactivated to process one request, Resolute's attorney told The Arizona Republic.
5. Resolute and Medhost brokered an agreement in January to reopen the EHR for 90 days, alert patients of the time frame to request records and hire staff to respond to requests. The plan would be paid for partially from Indigo's proceeds and partially by Resolute. Indigo has tried to block the proposal, according to the report.
6. Ms. Secrist is testifying at a hearing on the proposal Feb. 20.
Read the full story here.
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