A woman who detectives said posed as a licensed nurse at AdventHealth in Palm Coast for seven months before her ruse was discovered could expose the hospital to lawsuits, including those due to any access she had to private health care information, an attorney said.
Autumn Marie Bardisa, 29, of Palm Coast, was arrested Aug. 5 and charged with seven counts of practicing a health care profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information. Each is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Detectives determined that Bardisa had participated in medical services to 4,486 patients from June 2024 through January 2025, despite never holding a valid nursing license, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
Bardisa remained at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility Aug. 7 where she was being held on a $70,000 bond.
AdventHealth declined to comment on Aug. 6 and had not responded to follow-up questions on Aug. 7, including about Bardisa’s access to private medical records.
Attorney: ‘Breach of confidentiality’
Kelly Chanfrau, an attorney at Chanfrau and Chanfrau, said Bardisa would have been able to access medical records for thousands of patients even though she should not have been able to.
“She’s someone that didn’t have true authorization to have access to medical records. There’s been a breach of confidentiality,” Chanfrau said in a phone interview.
The records are protected by HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
“This woman who did not have authorized access to all of these people’s medical records has now had access,” Chanfrau said. “That’s a problem.”
Another ground for a lawsuit could be if anyone was injured due to any action by Bardisa.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said in a previous interview that investigators are not aware of anyone who was injured due to Bardisa’s care.
“If she caused any injuries, delayed care, misdiagnosed, mistreated, those types of things, if that happened, then, yeah, there would be a negligence claim, negligent hiring, retention and supervision claims and malpractice claims obviously,” Chanfrau said.
Attorney Michael Politis of Politis and Matovina also said that unless Bardisa committed some kind of “medical negligence” the hospital would not be exposed to a lawsuits.
He added that the hospital failed to properly do a background check on Bardisa. But if she did not cause any harm, then there would be no basis for a lawsuit in that regard.
“The hospital was negligent in not properly doing a background check and confirming her licensure, and then negligent retention would only come into effect if they knew about it, and then continued to employ her,” Politis said.
But Politis said the hospital fired her when they discovered the problem.
Attorney hopes she can return to nursing career
Politis said he hopes Bardisa can get beyond her legal issues and work as a nurse again.
“But I don’t know once these allegations, if they’re proven or she pleads to them, I think it may forever preclude her from practicing as a nurse,” Politis said. “That’s a shame.”
Politis said that if she was a candidate for a promotion it showed she exhibited “qualities and leadership skills.”
“I hope she does OK in the criminal justice system,” he said.
Bardisa claimed she had passed test
AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway Hospital hired Bardisa on July 3, 2023, as an advanced nurse tech to work under the supervision of a registered nurse, according to the sheriff’s office.
When she applied for a job, Bardisa indicated that she passed the required classes to be a registered nurse but had not yet passed the licensing exam. Bardisa subsequently told the hospital that she had passed the exam and gave them a license number, which matched a woman with her first name but a different last name, the sheriff’s office stated.
Bardisa said she had recently gotten married and changed her last name. She was asked to provide her marriage license but she never did, the sheriff’s office stated.
In January 2025, Bardisa was offered a promotion. That’s when a fellow employee checked Bardisa’s license. The employee discovered that Bardisa had a certified nursing assistant license, which had expired, the sheriff’s office stated. The employee reported her discovery to administrators.
AdventHealth investigated and found that Bardisa had not provided her marriage license as had been requested.
Administrators fired Bardisa on Jan. 22 and the hospital contacted the sheriff’s office.
Bardisa received a registered nurse license on Feb. 18.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: ‘Fake nurse’ fired from AdventHealth Palm Coast could expose hospital to lawsuits
Reporting by Frank Fernandez, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
