North County patients are growing frustrated with care delays and scant communication regarding ongoing technical problems that have continued for nearly a month.

Several patients of Palomar Health Medical Group, which operates clinics in Escondido, Poway, Ramona, Rancho Peñasquitos, Valley Center and Vista, report receiving a letter on March 13 that informed them that the medical provider was “experiencing a technical issue” impacting its electronic medical records system.

“As a result, access to certain systems has been temporarily interrupted while we work closely with the vendor to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” Palomar’s letter said.

But some patients reported this week that they continue to experience delays, especially with making new appointments and accessing medical records.

A Palomar patient, who said he prefers to remain anonymous to avoid damaging relationships with his medical providers, said that the situation remained frustratingly inefficient during a visit he and his wife made to a Palomar location in Poway on Wednesday morning.

The appointment, he said, was running 45 minutes late, with clerks manually copying health insurance documents and driver’s licenses for billing purposes, even for long-standing patients with all of their information on file.

There has been no further explanation of when the situation will be resolved since the memo dated March 13.

“At home, neither of us have received any updated information regarding the problems via email or text,” he said.

Lew Bloch of Ramona had a similar sentiment. He said that he still has not seen medical test results pop up on Palomar’s web portal following an office visit in February. It has been surprising, he said, to receive no follow-up communications.

“I wouldn’t necessarily expect a phone call, but I totally would expect a snail mail, if nothing else,” Bloch said.

Local health insurance broker Scott Stern said his wife was supposed to have a follow-up appointment after a heart procedure. But after Palomar rescheduled it twice in March, they gave up and booked an appointment with a Sharp HealthCare cardiologist in Rancho Bernardo.

While that appointment went well, Stern said, it had to be conducted without the official medical record of the original procedure that Palomar performed.

“The doctor basically had to go off of what my wife told her from memory because there were no medical records present,” Stern said.

Not only was his wife unable to get her records herself, but her new cardiologist also struck out.

“She asked Sharp to ask them (Palomar) to send them the records … they haven’t heard anything from them,” Stern said.

Like others, Stern said he is simply astounded that his wife did not receive more outreach following the cancelled follow-up appointments in March.

“They’ve just gone radio silent,” he said. “You would think someone would, you know, … reach out to their patients to clear some things up, right?”

Palomar Health, the public health care district that owns Palomar Health Medical Group, has refused to say more about the current situation’s causes and why it has taken so long to resolve the matter.

Asked on Friday for a deeper explanation, a Palomar representative said in an email, “we have no further information to provide at this time.” A follow-up set of questions sent Tuesday received no response.

Palomar’s patient notice on March 13 did say that its technical difficulties were related to NextGen, the maker of its electronic medical records system. NextGen did not respond Wednesday when asked for comment.

The company has come under increased scrutiny for a range of issues with its medical records system. EHR Source, an online publication that publishes independent reviews of electronic medical records systems, recently documented problems with the NextGen system, observing “a persistent pattern of user-reported issues,” which have included sluggish desktop software and “unresolved bugs, and deteriorating support.”

It is the second recent disruption for Palomar Health Medical Group Patients. In May 2024, a cyberattack paralyzed many of the organization’s digital resources, affecting electronic medical records systems, prescriptions and refills, credit card payments, processing of electronic lab and radiology orders and access to its patient portal online.

So far, there is no indication that Palomar medical group’s recent technology difficulties were caused by a cyber attack. State law requires all businesses and state and local agencies to provide the public with copies of data breach notices that organizations send to more than 500 affected residents. As of Wednesday, no notices were listed for Palomar on the state attorney general’s website that lists such disclosures.