BATON ROUGE – Today, Louisiana Right to Life mailed letters to the Bossier Parish District Attorney, the Department of Health, and the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners requesting an investigation of potential violations of state law surrounding the destruction of patient medical records after the closure of the Bossier City Medical Suite (BCMS).
A copy of the letter can be downloaded here.
An emailed press release from Louisiana Right to Life says that in February of 2017, the Department of Health cited Bossier City Medical Suite for not reporting the rape of a minor, along with failing to document the filing of necessary state reporting on the occurrence of abortion at the facility.
In March of 2017, the BCMS voluntarily closed and surrendered its outpatient abortion facility license to the Department of Health. Louisiana Right to Life says that the owner of BCMS stated, a month after BCMS closed, all patient records were destroyed.
“The destruction of patient records in the months immediately following the closure of a medical facility is concerning, and state laws could be in violation because of this. Now, potentially even more concerning is that public records have revealed that BCMS closed only weeks after the Department of Health found deficiencies for failure to report the rape of a minor and failure to report abortions to the Department among a small sample size of files reviewed,” said Benjamin Clapper, executive director of Louisiana Right to Life.
He went on to ask how many more violations of state law, such as the unreported rape of a minor, could be found in the patient records of BCMS.
“Unfortunately, since the destruction of their patient records, future investigations or criminal proceedings may never be able to determine if additional violations of state law occurred. We call on local and state agencies to investigate these matters and take appropriate action,” Clapper said in the release.
