Tabetha Swartz was a little unnerved when she saw the legal notice in the newspaper.
Her former physician, Dr. Ana Oquendo, hadn't paid rent on a storage unit in St. Petersburg, and an auction was scheduled for the unit's contents, including "patient medical records."
Alarms immediately went off for Swartz, who lives on Treasure Island. A research coordinator at Bayfront Medical Center, she knew that federal laws are supposed to protect sensitive medical information. And as someone who had her identity stolen last year, she had learned that patient files with Social Security numbers and birth dates are a gold mine for identity thieves.
Discarded medical records turn up in dumpsters from time to time. And a year ago in Denver, an abandoned storage unit was found to contain an identity theft operation. There, among the computers and printers, were stolen medical records.
Following Swartz's complaint to the state, the auction scheduled for Thursday morning appears to be on hold. But there's no law to stop the same scenario from playing out in the future. In fact, the owner of the storage facility said a deceased chiropractor's unit, presumably containing medical records, is also awaiting auction.
"There's nothing in the statutes that explains anything about this," said Barry Smith, manager of the Budget Self Storage on 25th Street N. "But we don't want to rattle anybody's chains."
State law requires doctors to keep former patients' records for at least five years, but does not stipulate what should happen to them after that.
"There is no list of approved ways to dispose of medical records," said Eulinda Smith, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health. "But the physician is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of patient records."
According to local medical associations, most physicians have old documents shredded.
But when doctors simply abandon medical records in a storage unit, the reality is that there's little standing between a patient's confidential information and an identity thief.
Tammie Lockwood, who runs a busy auction business serving storage units all over Florida's west coast, said she makes bidders sign a paper promising to turn any medical records, family photos and personal paperwork over to the manager of the storage facility. But she acknowledges that it's a tough rule to enforce.
At auctions, people bid on entire units after viewing the contents from outside, then they have 48 hours to empty the space. No one watches to guarantee that personal items and medical records aren't hauled away with the rest of the loot, either deliberately or by mistake.
"If the buyer says nothing's in there, that's what we go on," said Lockwood, vice president of Storage Auction Protection Services in St. Petersburg. "It's just hard to believe that a doctor would let all this stuff go."
Oquendo, who has been practicing in Florida since 1993, is trying to resolve the storage issue, her son and office manager, Aron B. Shaw, said Wednesday. He declined to say how much Oquendo owed on the two storage units which were slated for auction; the auctioneer said such units are usually at least three months in arrears.
"It's not her intention to let that (the auction) happen," Shaw said. "But those are older patient records. They are not medical records for any of our current patients."
He blamed the situation on the fact that his mother's office is in the process of relocating from a space on Fifth Avenue N in St. Petersburg. Oquendo, a family practice doctor, is temporarily sharing offices with a podiatrist.
Lockwood, the auctioneer, said Oquendo was sent a certified letter notifying her of the auction and two legal notices also appeared in the newspaper, as required by law.
Oquendo has until the auction date to pay her back rent and take possession of the records. Failing that, Lockwood said that if she opens Oquendo's unit and sees what are clearly medical records, she will cancel the sale.
"I'll padlock the unit and tell the storage facility manager to shred it," she said. "But then he's stuck with the shredding costs."
Lockwood said when a state investigator visited the storage facility earlier in the week to inquire about the auction, the manager offered to give him the abandoned medical records.
"He didn't want them," Lockwood said.
Times researcher Will Gorham contributed to this report. Kris Hundley can be reached at khundley@sptimes.com or (727)892-2996.
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