In the Ruling, the lower court ordered the hospital to immediately surrender and/or release to Mr Geoffrey Cheboi a certified copy of the original unfiltered medical file of his brother. According to Cheboi, his brother Mr RBK walked to St. Francis Community Hospital for a left upper limb surgery and has been lying unconscious therein since the same was conducted on 23rd September 2021
By The Weekly Vision
The management of the St. Francis Community Hospital Kasarani is on the radar after the High Court ordered the release of medical records of a patient who has been at the facility for a while now. It appears that the hospital management had in place a well-executed plan to overcharge patients by denying them access to their medical records and billings.
The hospital CEO Dr Joan Thathi, Administrator Geoffrey Ngisa, and Chief Nursing Officer Sr. Salome Mukami in collusion with the Chief Finance Officer Sr. Pamela Ikaal face accusations of attempting to defraud unsuspecting patients by inflating medical bills. In the scheme of things, patients are not allowed to access their medical records used to generate the bills.
According to sources, the bills are exaggerated and patients are only given the total bill with no breakdown on how such figures are arrived at. The hospital was sued by one Godfrey Cheboi, brother to one of the patients Mr RBK, the court ordered the hospital management to release the medical reports. According to the hospital, the bill stood at Ksh. 3,595,585.00 by the time of filling this story and Mr RBK believes the bill is exaggerated hence the request to get medical records used to arrive at the bill. The hospital management was dissatisfied with the orders issued by the court and filed an appeal for a stay of execution which the court declined. The appeal was made by Geoffrey Ngisa, an administrator at the hospital.
In the Ruling, the lower court ordered the hospital to immediately surrender and/or release to Mr Geoffrey Cheboi a certified copy of the original unfiltered medical file of his brother. According to Cheboi, his brother Mr RBK walked to St. Francis Community Hospital for a left upper limb surgery and has been lying unconscious therein since the same was conducted on 23rd September 2021.
However, the hospital’s administration claims that although they have the said medical file, they claim that the documents therein are highly sensitive, highly classified and highly confidential/privileged and thus cannot be released to Mr Cheboi. The management claims that if it hands over the patient’s original file to his brother, it may not be able to recover the accruing medical bill from the patient which stood at Kshs. 3,595,585/- as of the end of 2022.
The medical team at St. Francis Community Hospital claimed that the patient is in critical condition and his health keeps deteriorating with each passing day. Unfortunately, the management seems to be only interested in how the medical fees will be settled to the detriment of the patient’s health and the right to life. On 6th July 2022, the management wrote a letter stating that the hospital is willing to release the original medical records/file on condition that the patient is immediately and simultaneously removed from their facility.
The court however ruled that the hospital has not demonstrated the substantial loss and that it may not be able to recover the accrued medical bill from the patient in case it releases the medical file as it has admitted that the patient is still in its facility and under its care. In any event, accrued medical bills are civil debts which can lawfully be recovered through civil proceedings. The ruling by Janet Mulwa dated 3rd May 2023 reads in part “For the foregoing, the court finds that the Applicant’s application dated 20th June 2022 lacks merit. The same is hereby dismissed with costs to the Respondent”.
What this means is that St. Francis Community Hospital’s CEO Dr Joan Thathi, the hospital’s administrator Geoffrey Ngisa and the Chief Nursing Officer Sr. Salome Mukami must produce and hand over the original and certified medical records of the patient to his brother Mr Cheboi immediately. Cheboi will now scrutinize the records through the help of a medical expert to see if the bill is exaggerated or not.
