Patients from the shuttered Coastside Family Medical Center could once again be allowed to obtain original copies of their medical records.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Dennis Montali observed Friday morning that giving thousands of records directly to patients could be the most viable and affordable option left to resolve the growing troubles that have emerged following the closure of the Coastside's largest medical center about four months ago.
Montali gave guidance to fix what he perceived as weeks of “rancor” between the court-appointed trustee and the former directors of the Coastside clinic. The two parties have been feuding through court-filed paperwork after Trustee E. Lynn Schoenmann made a motion last month to dismiss the entire bankruptcy.
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Schoenmann argued in her motion that the former clinic board of directors had sought bankruptcy protection only after “squandering” all the money that could have been used to deliver medical charts to patients. Unlike other cases of bankruptcy, medical centers have an obligation under state and federal law to ensure medical records find their way back to patients or their doctors.
The former clinic board members have argued the trustee is the one who wasted money, spending most of the $52,000 in assets left at the clinic without making any progress to get medical charts back to patients. Several volunteers have offered to help the trustee deliver patient records, but Schoenmann has reportedly rebuffed their aid.
Schoenmann defended her actions on Friday, saying the question of how exactly to distribute medical records in an affordable way falls into “a legal gray area.”
“It takes an extraordinary amount of labor and resources to go hunting for records. It's time consuming,” she said. “This is a hot potato ... There's a lot of people who want to volunteer for a few afternoons, but no volunteers are willing to step up and take responsibility.”
Montali decided to hold off on dismissing the bankruptcy case, saying that working with the Coastside community still was the best option available for getting records out to patients. He advised Schoenmann and the former board of the clinic to meet together with a mediator to find a new way to resolve the dispute.
“This case doesn't lend itself to an easy fix,” the judge said. “We’re a bunch of bankruptcy people suddenly becoming health experts.”
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