Phelon requests records

Company asks for release of former employees medical information in connection with lawsuit

Web posted August 20, 1998

By Kathy Steele
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- An attorney who represents R.E. Phelon Co. in a negligence lawsuit wants a judge to order Aiken Regional Medical Centers to release records from the brief medical stay of Arthur Hastings Wise.

Mr. Wise is accused of killing four Phelon employees and wounding three others nearly a year ago.

One of those wounded, security guard Stan Vance, has sued Phelon for negligence. The lawsuit alleges that Phelon failed to warn Mr. Vance that Mr. Wise's personnel file suggested he was capable of violence. Mr. Wise had been fired from Phelon about two months before the shootings.

Phelon, in its response to the suit, denied the allegations.

Immediately upon his arrest inside the plant, Mr. Wise was taken to Aiken Regional Medical Centers in critical condition. He complained of being nauseated, apparently from swallowing an unknown substance.

Police have never said what the substance was. Mr. Wise was released two days later and transported to Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville.

On Wednesday, attorney Clarke McCants, who represents Phelon, filed a motion in Aiken County Court of Common Pleas seeking a court order to force Aiken Regional to comply with a June 19 subpoena seeking any and all information about Mr. Wise's hospital admission.

Mr. McCants wrote that he ``has in good faith attempted to resolve the issues contained in this motion.''

Hospital officials cited confidentiality requirements in denying the request. A general authorization or subpoena isn't sufficient, they said.

Phelon has two routes to pursue, according to a June 29 letter from Gail S. Thompson of the hospital's medical records department.

They can get an authorization from Mr. Wise or a court order. Either choice must be specific about what the type of information sought, Ms. Thompson wrote in her letter.

Among items requested were handwritten or mechanically produced charts, records, notes, reports or similar items containing ``any information of any type''; records or reports of any tests or procedures performed; prescription records; billing information; correspondence sent or received; records documenting personal, telephone or other conversations with or in regard to Mr. Wise; and ``any other similar matters in your possession of any type or nature.''