Federal officials are investigating how patient records loaded with intimate medical details and doctors' personnel files were abandoned amid the ruins of Monsour Medical Center when its administrators walked away from the failing facility six years ago.

The records, in easy reach of the vagrants, arsonists and other trespassers who frequent the condemned building, were uncovered this week when Jeannette city attorney Scott Avolio inspected parts of the trash-filled complex with a Tribune-Review reporter and photographer.

Rachel Seeger, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed an investigator from the agency's Philadelphia office has been assigned to the case.

Seeger said “disposing of individuals' health information in a manner that is accessible to unauthorized persons is a violation of HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations.”

Among its many provisions, HIPAA, enacted in 1996, protects the security and privacy of health care data.

Civil and criminal penalties for violating the law range from fines to 10 years in prison, depending on how the violation was committed, according to the act.

“Hospitals are not permitted to simply abandon records in Dumpsters that are accessible to the public,” she said. “HIPAA does not require a specific disposal method. In cases where a hospital closes, administrators may consider notifying current and former patients of a chance to pick up their records before they are stored or disposed of.”

“These records are readily accessible,” Avolio said, surveying the building's rubble that also contains physicians' licensing information and medical students' evaluations. “There's definitely sensitive information here.”

Attempts to contact several of the patients whose records were in the building have been unsuccessful.

The hospital, closed in 2006 after a number of failed state inspections, has been condemned by Jeannette officials who say they don't have $250,000 to $1 million needed to demolish it.

Michael Monsour, CEO of the hospital when it closed, did not return calls seeking comment. He is awaiting trial on charges that he partially bit off his brother's nose during a New Year's get-together.

He is the son of Dr. Howard Monsour, 94, who founded the health center in 1952 with his three brothers, William, Robert and Roy, who is deceased. Neither Robert, 96, nor William, 84, could be reached for comment. Robert was in the news this year when his caretaker was charged with diverting more than $340,000 from his accounts to hers.

Missing board members

Avolio has doggedly attempted to determine who served on the hospital's board of directors during its final days, hoping to identify who is accountable for the dilapidated structure and its contents.

Because the hospital was mired in bankruptcy proceedings and regulatory problems for decades, the issue of who controlled the facility and who is ultimately responsible for laws possibly violated remains murky, Avolio said.

The issue took on new importance when Avolio unearthed the patient records with names, addresses, diagnoses, detailed treatment plans, insurance information, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. The boxes were found in a stone building — the hospital's original structure — attached to the facility's main tower.

City officials have denied repeated requests to tour the main tower, citing structural deterioration and the existence of cancer-causing asbestos.

After navigating the stone building's buckling steps, Avolio stepped around piles of unused syringes and other trash.

Earlier this year, officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection removed biomedical waste, traces of mercury and blood products from the facility. DEP spokesman John Poister said the unused syringes do not pose a health threat, adding that his agency has no further jurisdiction in the matter.

All sorts of records

In a doorway to the emergency room, Avolio found stacks of confidential intern and resident reviews containing medical licenses and Drug Enforcement Administration identification numbers — codes assigned by the federal agency to medical practitioners licensed to dispense or prescribe medications.

Avolio said some of those former interns and residents practice in the area.

Donetta Spears of the DEA in Philadelphia said leaving DEA numbers strewn about does not violate any federal law, but “we have our concerns. These records are there for people to pull out and review. The idea of anyone walking in and obtaining DEA numbers and writing fraudulent prescriptions — we have a problem.”

Search for accountability

Avolio's discovery occurs just weeks after officials from the state Department of Health insisted that when Monsour closed, hospital officials complied with the law by informing the state that patient records had been secured. But spokeswoman Holli Senior said the hospital was not required to disclose where the records were stored, adding that her department has no further jurisdiction in the matter.

“It is the responsibility of the owners to take appropriate steps to maintain and then destroy records,” Senior said. “DOH jurisdiction ... ended the day that it closed and surrendered its license.”

State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, and state Rep. George Dunbar, R-Penn Township, said they will call on the Health Department to investigate.

“I have asked the Pennsylvania Department of Health to research who the custodian of records was assigned to at the time of the medical center's closure. Whoever that was should be accountable,” Ward said. “In addition to the personal medical information laying around, there is a real risk of identity theft if individual Social Security numbers are on those charts. This clearly is a callous disregard of the trust that patients afforded Monsour Medical Center.”

Avolio, who asked that no detailed photographs of the records be taken to protect patients' identities, also found evaluations for medical students who served clinical rotations at the hospital.

Because Monsour received federal funding to take the students, Avolio said the facility may be in violation of the Federal Education Record and Privacy Act, known as FERPA, which created minimum standards for protecting education records.

During his search, Avolio also stumbled upon medical records of residents of several Westmoreland County senior citizens apartments.

Howard Monsour once had a contract with the Westmoreland County Housing Authority to provide medical care at the authority's high-rises, according to records.

Richard Gazarik is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-830-6292 or rgazarik@tribweb.com.

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