February 24, 2007: Vol. 30, No. 8
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del.icio.usSix months after a mammography center abruptly closed — and four months after state and federal authorities promised to investigate the matter — patients are still waiting to get their own medical records.
But the owners of Bay Imaging, which once operated a breast-cancer-screening center on Fourth Avenue and 92nd Street until it abruptly shut down in August, are fighting back, saying that they simply can’t afford to get patients their medical records.
“We do not have the resources to distribute the film to everyone,” said Rubin Fleurantin, who claims he closed his three centers after he went bankrupt. “We asked the Food and Drug Administration, the city, and the state to accept the film, and they said no. Everyone is trying to make me look ugly, like I don’t want to give the film.”
Presumably, one of the people trying to make Fleurantin “look ugly” is Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge), who says he’s fed up with Fleurantin, and with the snail’s pace of the investigation by city, state, and federal authorities. He’s even calling for the intervention of Attorney General Cuomo.
“Bay Imaging patients have waited long enough,” said Gentile. “They need their records now. Their health and well-being depends on it.”
Just ask Barbara Sanseverino, who needs her mammography film to monitor the growth of calcifications in her breasts.
“My mother had breast cancer, so I have a family history,” said Sanseverino, who was a patient at the Bay Ridge center over the course of six years.
It’s not only individual patients who are losing out.
Dr. Martin Valdes, of the Central Brooklyn Medical Group, retrieved his patients’ records only after suing the company.
“Patients end up at an imaging center because someone sent them there,” said Valdes. “It’s the responsibility of those providers to make sure that they help their patients get that information.”
While the parties wrangled, Gentile’s office hosted a free mammography van on Feb. 26.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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