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Ok, so forgive me if I am a butthole for posting this, but it is the story I always think of whenever there is a question about what a client or doctor says. This is an extreme case but has served as my reminder for why records of even itty-bitty stuff is important. Please see the funny. Realize it was in 2006 during my first year as a tech so I likely don't have all my facts straight either.
There were at least 3 people, 2-3 lawyers and 2+ clinics involved, some of which was very fuzzy even at the time.
A client we haven't seen in 2 years or more calls and asks for a record transfer to their new vet for Fluffy and the deceased dog, so they have a history of care (pretty sure it was the wife). She then calls back and gives us a different fax number saying the first records were sent to the wrong place. We didn't think anything of it at the time, but fast forward a week...
Husband and girlfriend come in to get all of Fluffy's vaccines and ANYTHING ELSE WE CAN POSSIBLY DO done while they are there. We update vaccines and try to figure out what they really want and somehow the other clinic and at least one other are brought up. The hubby also wants his wife's name pulled from the record and wants us to mark all treatment done in the last 3 years as paid for by his girlfriend. We called the vet clinic that we had transferred records to just to see what is up since something is not right here.
They declined to comment on their client but felt it wise to warn us that THEY had updated Fluffy 2 weeks prior, and possibly a third clinic had done it a month before that and that the owners were in a nasty divorce and trying to use veterinary records as part of the suite.
We declined to change any records and sent client fire letters to all parties involved at the advice of a lawyer/accountant but that second fax number was apparently the wife's lawyer and they issued a spina for our vets to testify on behalf of the wife that she was the primary caretaker. Our records really did have just the husband's name on them with the wife mentioned occasionally. No real record as to which spouse was in for which care and most of the file was over 5 years old. The appt 2 years before had been a Bordetella vax. Even saying that was a problem though as apparently the dog was given the update to board while the husband was supposed to have been home taking care of it. Instead he had gone on a cruise with his girlfriend.
So we, the poor confused clinic staff are having 5 different people calling and trying to grill us about this dog's treatment and care history and about who cared for it and this is the first time we have ever had to say "no comment." I don't know if it was the lawyers like the office manager suspected, but somebody tried to call pretending to be the police with an animal neglect accusation and then as an emergency clinic saying they had Fluffy and Fluffy had been hit by a car and it was vitally important that they knew if the girlfriend had been at the Bordetella vax appt 2 years prior. We were also threatened with a law suite by the husband for releasing records to his ex-wife (not that we knew) and by the wife for endangering her dog with extra vaccines. We were afraid to tell anyone anything about any animal for over a year after that. The office manager started asking people for 2 forms of ID and a signed statement that this was their animal for awhile before we would even talk about the pet and we had to verify in at least 2 ways that a number belonged to another vet clinic and that the actual owner was requesting a record transfer.
It's all a bit funny now, but back then the other clinic was threatening to take us down with it if they lost money in the suit and everbody, from JAVMA to the national media was speculating how high the value of a pet could go and this couple wanted to find out by including vet clinics as witnesses or by suing the clinics if they lost the dog.
I think a judge ended up reprimand in the lawyers and the couple and got them to drop that whole part of the divorce case. Turns out neither of them liked the dog anyway and it went to some young neighbor who watched the poor thing anyway.
There were at least 3 people, 2-3 lawyers and 2+ clinics involved, some of which was very fuzzy even at the time.
A client we haven't seen in 2 years or more calls and asks for a record transfer to their new vet for Fluffy and the deceased dog, so they have a history of care (pretty sure it was the wife). She then calls back and gives us a different fax number saying the first records were sent to the wrong place. We didn't think anything of it at the time, but fast forward a week...
Husband and girlfriend come in to get all of Fluffy's vaccines and ANYTHING ELSE WE CAN POSSIBLY DO done while they are there. We update vaccines and try to figure out what they really want and somehow the other clinic and at least one other are brought up. The hubby also wants his wife's name pulled from the record and wants us to mark all treatment done in the last 3 years as paid for by his girlfriend. We called the vet clinic that we had transferred records to just to see what is up since something is not right here.
They declined to comment on their client but felt it wise to warn us that THEY had updated Fluffy 2 weeks prior, and possibly a third clinic had done it a month before that and that the owners were in a nasty divorce and trying to use veterinary records as part of the suite.
We declined to change any records and sent client fire letters to all parties involved at the advice of a lawyer/accountant but that second fax number was apparently the wife's lawyer and they issued a spina for our vets to testify on behalf of the wife that she was the primary caretaker. Our records really did have just the husband's name on them with the wife mentioned occasionally. No real record as to which spouse was in for which care and most of the file was over 5 years old. The appt 2 years before had been a Bordetella vax. Even saying that was a problem though as apparently the dog was given the update to board while the husband was supposed to have been home taking care of it. Instead he had gone on a cruise with his girlfriend.
So we, the poor confused clinic staff are having 5 different people calling and trying to grill us about this dog's treatment and care history and about who cared for it and this is the first time we have ever had to say "no comment." I don't know if it was the lawyers like the office manager suspected, but somebody tried to call pretending to be the police with an animal neglect accusation and then as an emergency clinic saying they had Fluffy and Fluffy had been hit by a car and it was vitally important that they knew if the girlfriend had been at the Bordetella vax appt 2 years prior. We were also threatened with a law suite by the husband for releasing records to his ex-wife (not that we knew) and by the wife for endangering her dog with extra vaccines. We were afraid to tell anyone anything about any animal for over a year after that. The office manager started asking people for 2 forms of ID and a signed statement that this was their animal for awhile before we would even talk about the pet and we had to verify in at least 2 ways that a number belonged to another vet clinic and that the actual owner was requesting a record transfer.
It's all a bit funny now, but back then the other clinic was threatening to take us down with it if they lost money in the suit and everbody, from JAVMA to the national media was speculating how high the value of a pet could go and this couple wanted to find out by including vet clinics as witnesses or by suing the clinics if they lost the dog.
I think a judge ended up reprimand in the lawyers and the couple and got them to drop that whole part of the divorce case. Turns out neither of them liked the dog anyway and it went to some young neighbor who watched the poor thing anyway.
