The UNM Health Sciences Center lost about 90 percent of its patient medical records created before 2005, after a fire burned through an industrial warehouse in downtown Albuquerque this summer, said Catherine Porto, executive director of health information and incident commander.
On June 23, a catastrophic fire broke out at a records storage warehouse at 1301 Broadway Blvd. N.E., north of Mountain Road N.E. and west of the University.
The exact cause of the fire is undetermined, but the investigation is focusing on the roof top air conditioner where the fire may have begun and spread rapidly. Temperatures are believed to have reached well over 2,000 degrees, according to the Albuquerque Fire Department.
Most of the contents were
destroyed in the building, as the fire continued throughout the day, filling the streets with heavy smoke.
“In order to determine the scope of the damage, UNM HSC activated its emergency operations command (EOC) to address immediate patient care and staff needs and to complete an inventory of the records lost in the fire,” Porto said.
The fire continued to smolder until July 3, until it reignited and burned for another 26 hours. As a result, firefighters soaked with water the remaining contents to prevent further damage.
The warehouse stored patient medical records from the UNM HSC created before 2005, when the hospitals switched to digital record storage.
HSC also began scanning old records into a digital format five years ago, Porto said, but it is still unknown how much of the lost records were scanned.
Paul Roth, UNM executive vice president for Health Sciences, said the incident is unfortunate but could have been worse.
“We are deeply saddened by this unfortunate event,” he said in a press release. “Had we not dedicated ourselves to switching to a totally digital record system five years ago, this could have been far worse.”
The warehouse, owned by a Texas landlord, was leased by a private contractor under contract with the HSC and UNMH to store records.
The damaged and destroyed records at the warehouse site were secured immediately after the fire was initially extinguished and have been secure ever since, an HSC statement said. Damaged records will be disposed of according to the requirements set forth in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
HSC has developed procedures to inform people who request copies of past medical records that the records were destroyed in the fire and give them a document certifying that fact.
