Widow’s lawsuit claims hospital refuses to release husband’s x-ray report showing missed cancer diagnosis
A Woodstock, New York, woman has filed a lawsuit against HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway campus and a medical records vendor claiming both refuse to release her late husband’s healthcare files that she needs for a malpractice suit against the hospital.
Sherry Russell, 62, specifically stated that a March 2017 chest x-ray report of her partner Charles Russell will demonstrate that a HealthAlliance Hospital radiologist failed to spot his lung tumor. Russell claims that mistake robbed her husband of critical treatment time, with providers not catching the mass until a year later, the recordonline.com reported Sept. 9. He passed in October due to lung cancer.
The medical records-related lawsuit Russell filed in state Supreme Court cites the federal HITECH Act of 2009 as the reason she is entitled to electronic copies of her husband’s health records. She claims the hospital and medical record vendor Ciox Health have been “unresponsive and difficult” to deal with, according to the news outlet.
“It’s all just very frustrating,” Russell said. “I didn’t think it would be this hard.”
Russell’s lawyer, John Fisher, must file her separate malpractice lawsuit by Friday, according to state law, and intends to do so with or without the x-ray report. Fisher has more than a dozen other clients who are trying to get their medical records from HealthAlliance Hospital.
A spokesman from Westchester Medical Center Health Network, which includes member institution HealthAlliance Hospital, told reporters that he couldn’t comment on pending litigation. A Ciox spokeswoman said the same.
Read the entire story from recordonline.com, the website of daily newspaper Time Herald-Record, below.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.