Nursing home records ruling put on hold

TALLAHASSEE — A state appeals court has stepped in and at least temporarily halted the release of thousands of death records to a beleaguered Broward County nursing home.

The 1st District Court of Appeal on Monday extended a stay of a lower-court ruling that would require the Florida Department of Health to quickly turn over death certificates from across the state to attorneys for The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills.

The one-page order was largely procedural and did not explain the court’s reasoning. But it was the latest twist in a months-long records battle between the Florida Department of Health and the nursing home, which the state moved to shut down after residents died following Hurricane Irma.

The nursing home has been in a series of legal fights with Gov. Rick Scott’s administration, including about a state attempt to revoke the facility’s license. As part of those disputes, the nursing home filed a public-records lawsuit Jan. 31, alleging that the Department of Health had improperly refused to provide copies of death certificates for people across the state from Sept. 9 through Sept. 16 — a period that included Hurricane Irma and its immediate aftermath.

An attorney for the nursing home indicated last month that the facility is seeking the addresses of locations where other people died during and after the massive storm.

Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis ruled in favor of the nursing home in April and last month, with a June 19 decision saying, in part, that the department is “specifically ordered to immediately (within 24 hours of receipt of this order) produce to petitioner electronic copies (e.g. via email, dropbox, a flash drive, or other appropriate medium) all of the approximate 5,907 death certificate records that petitioner has requested.”