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The story of MedRecords, our story, begins with Dr. Clarence Fernandes. There is a chance that you knew him – either personally or professionally as he was a well-respected doctor of 40 years. He cared for over 6,000 active patients in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. One would be correct in thinking that is high as it is nearly triple what a typical practice maintains. He was a force for good that instilled that sense of good in his family and community.

Despite getting older, retirement was something that remained far from Dr. Fernandes’ mind. He was doing good work, so he had no intention of slowing down and thought it was too early to plan for retirement and the eventual closing of his practice. Unfortunately, he passed unexpectedly, and while his funeral was standing room only with seemingly the entirety of Maple Ridge turning out to mourn, the decisions regarding what would happen to his practice, along with the 6,000 records within, had not been made in advance. These decisions would ultimately fall to the estate of Dr. Fernandes and eventually to his son, Aiden Fernandes – the founder of MedRecords.

Shaken by the unexpected grief, Aiden returned home prematurely from a vacation to not only help plan for his father’s funeral but to contend with the complicated and entirely alien process of closing a medical practice. He learned very quickly that this task is not an exact science and that many of the guidelines and rules were difficult to obtain or seemed to be in flux. In the case of Dr. Fernandes, the largest issue at stake was the fate of the 6,000 medical records that resided at his office. Aiden discovered that, typically, when a medical practice closes, the patient records are sent to private storage companies that keep them for as long as is recommended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC guidelines.

A substantial part of what these storage companies do, beyond simple storage, is facilitating access to these records should a patient need it. Researching information for his father’s records, Aiden discovered several red flags. A number of exposés came to light at roughly the same time in the media, including The Globe and Mail, that painted these organizations in a distressing light. They were reportedly acting as private enterprises that set their own prices and treated patients as customers charging any amount they saw fit. With seemingly no oversight, this system translated to a substantial cost for any former patients who needed a copy of their records.

Aiden discovered that for the privilege of gaining a copy of these records, some of these storage facilities charged upwards of $600 per record. For most people, $600 is a prohibitive amount of money, and if the reports were correct, it was a cost that was inflated mainly for profit. Aiden saw a chance to continue his father’s legacy of helping people while at the same time fixing an outdated system that needlessly victimized those his father considered family.

The goal became twofold. Help patients retrieve their records easily and affordably while offering peace of mind to the doctors who were entering into the very same struggle in which Aiden found himself. The proliferation of contradictory information, complicated guidelines, and general uncertainty seemed to cloud this entire process, so Aiden knew that this was a system that desperately needed clarity and a modern touch.

He set to work, creating a system that would eventually become MedRecords. By modernizing and innovating on the record storage system, MedRecords has grown and expanded over the years. It has flourished into the de facto medical record storage system in BC with a previously unheard of endorsement from Doctors of BC. Gone is the uncertainty and the unnecessarily high costs associated with physical storage. It is replaced instead with respect for the medical profession’s longest-standing members and the continued desire to help those doctors’ patients even after they hang up the stethoscope.

In loving memory of Dr. Clarence Fernandes
April 26, 1949 – October 7, 2013

Invoking a Change

MedRecords is a non-profit association dedicated to protecting physicians and their practices by providing an affordable solution for patients. MedRecords was established in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the aim of lowering costs and making medical record transfers faster and more secure for patients and health care professionals.

MedRecords was created to invoke a change into this industry. With our growing support of many physicians across the province, we are and continuing to make an impact. MedRecords is entrusted with the safe keeping and distribution of medical records. Our aim is to protect the needs of the patient and make transfers standardized and convenient for physicians and their staff.

We welcome all companies to to take advantage of our not-for-profit pricing structure your scanning and storage needs. Let MedRecords assist you into the digital era, and help us increase the quality of healthcare in Canada.