DA expects Bend vet clinic determination soon

Two weeks after a reported break-in, the Deschutes Veterinary Clinic in Bend remains closed, but the Deschutes County district attorney said Wednesday he is close to a decision on whether it’s a criminal or civil matter.

The sudden closure of the clinic late last month caught pet-owner patients by surprise. A notice taped to the door indicating that office equipment was taken in a break-in had many concerned not only about their access to records, but whether others could have unauthorized access.

But a source told NewsChannel 21 Sunday that the clinic’s client records and personal information are safe, and no security breach occurred.

Veterinarian Dr. Scott Kramer has made available an e-mail address, deschutesvet@gmail.com that clients can use to contact the clinic for any records requests or inquiries.

“Clients and area veterinary clinics can use this e-address to request records, and to communicate any other pertinent information. The doctors and staff of Deschutes Veterinary Clinic thank you for your patience during this distressing time,” said a notice posted at http://www.deschutesvet.com.

Some viewers told NewsChannel 21 Wednesday that they had sent an email but after a week still were waiting on an answer.

But one viewer said he did receive a prompt answer, and his pet’s medical records.

“We are sorry for the wait and inconvenience,” the email he shared said. “We had to rebuild the data from a backup – our landlord confiscated our clinic medical and financial records without warning on a day we were closed.”

In a notice dated Dec. 22 and taped to the door at 25 NW Olney Avenue, the clinic told its clients that it “will be closed until further notice” and to “please seek veterinary services elsewhere.”

“To complicate matters, there was a break-in Saturday night,” it continued. “Most of the clinic equipment was removed, including all the computers and telephones. Therefore, we do not at the moment have access to any client records or files, nor any way to transfer information” to other veterinarians.

In an email to customers, the Deschutes vet stated: “Just for the record, we were never ‘holding the records hostage’ as has been spread as a rumor about Deschutes Vet. We had to recreate our practice management software from a backup.
In addition, contrary to the media and our landlord’s reports — there never was any equipment stolen from the clinic- we were just prohibited from accessing it.”

Bend police have concluded their investigation at this point, which they called a criminal trespassing case, rather than a burglary.

They passed on their findings to Deschutes County DA John Hummel, who told NewsChannel 21 on Wednesday that the investigation is ongoing. Hummel said a decision should come by the end of the week on whether it’s a criminal case or a matter to be resolved in civil court.

We talked to another veterinary clinic last month about how safe, in general, your pet’s medical records are.

“Electronic record-keeping, so that should be a fail-safe,” said Dr. Byron Maas of Bend Veterinary Clinic. “We actually put that into our record keeping, so that we always have that fail-safe. So we have a physical zip drive that we back up to, but we do it off-site every night.”