Warehouse fire destroys university medical files

After switching to digital records five years ago, the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center says about 90 percent of its patient medical records prior to 2005 were destroyed in a fire in a storage warehouse.

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KRQE 13 Santa Fe) August 12, 2010 -- The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center says about 90 percent of its patient medical records prior to 2005 were destroyed in a fire in an Albuquerque storage warehouse.

UNM’s executive vice president for health sciences says the center is working with its faculty and staff to evaluate the extent of the loss.

UNM says the warehouse was leased by a private company under contract with the Health Sciences Center and University of New Mexico Hospital to store their records.

The vice president says the loss would have been worse if UNM’s Health Sciences Center had not switched to digital records five years ago.

UNM says the vast majority of patient records within the past five years can be retrieved electronically.

Link: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/health/warehouse-fire-destroyed-medical-files

Source: DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report