Some local patients say their doctors office shut down unexpectedly, and the women in charge of the practice left with their medical records.
When Hope Family Medicine closed the doors a few days ago, patients were certain there would be no problem retrieving vital records they needed.
They were wrong, and it wasn't until Channel 4 started asking questions that answers were given.
Stephanie Lambert says she's been going to Hope Family Medicine on Stewarts Ferry Pike for about a year and a half. Her two young daughters were patients at the hospital as well.
About a week ago, Lambert says she got a phone call to not come in for her appointment with nurse practitioner April Collier.
"They called me at eight o'clock and told me not to come in, they were not seeing anymore patients," said Lambert. "I tried to get my records. I requested them over the phone and was told they would be ready after lunch."
But when Lambert's husband went to get her records, he was turned away without them. Little did Lambert know that not only was Collier shutting down the clinic on Stewarts Ferry Pike, but also the Hope Family Medicine Clinic on Murfreesboro Pike in Antioch would be closing as well.
A new clinic, not affiliated with Hope Family Medicine, has opened up on Stewarts Ferry Pike and patients have been coming there begging for records the folks don't have.
"We've had a lot of patients coming from over there trying to get records," said Angel Perez. "It's very frustrating and frustrating for us too. We have a lot of patients who are sick and we can't get information. We don't know what to do."
Channel 4 went over to the Antioch clinic to take pictures and when our team looked inside the locked door, our team saw shelves that were full of patient files, including Lambert and her children's files.
Channel 4 left the Antioch clinic and began making phone calls to the state and even went by Collier's home and discovered it was abandoned.
Our team went back to the Antioch clinic a few hours later and saw a note on the door. The files had been moved and the note told patients to fill out forms and drop them in the mailbox. The note went on to say when the files are ready to be picked up, someone would call each patient.
Channel 4 spoke by phone with someone from the state Department of Health, and they said it was the nurse practitioners' duty to make arrangements for patients to receive copies of medical records when the provider leaves a practice or ceases to practice.
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