Patients to be reunited with their medical records

Hundreds of patients of an Acton-based family physician will soon be receiving a letter explaining how they can retrieve their personal medical records, nearly destroyed when their doctor abruptly closed his practice and left the files in legal limbo.

"We expect by the last week of April to get all the letters out," said Christine Schuster, president and CEO of Emerson Hospital, which at the last minutes saved the files from destruction.

A Lynn storage company -- hired to clean out Dr. Ronald T. Moody's office after he was evicted last September -- was scheduled to discard the records earlier this month and auction the remaining equipment. Moody, 62, who state regulators said had let his medical license lapse, ran a private practice and was not affiliated with Emerson Hospital, in Concord.

But hospital officials offered to help out after the owner of the storage company, Jim Appleyard, couldn't get state regulators to assume responsibility for the records, and also was unable to locate Moody.

Schuster said hospital staffers trained in medical records and patient privacy practices are combing through 50 boxes and two file cabinets delivered from Appleyard's Lynn storage facility last week. They are cataloging each record, but it is time consuming, she said, because Moody also operated a walk-in clinic, so many of the records contain several patients' names, often from one-time encounters.

"We hoped it would go faster," Schuster said, "but there is much sorting to be done."

She said the letters sent to patients will also include a list of primary care doctors in the region, to help them find another provider. Patients may also contact the hospital to provide their contact information. That number is: 978-287-3111