Autumn Marie Bardisa, a 29-year-old resident of 7 Pinto Drive in Palm Coast who impersonated an emergency room nurse at AdventHealth Palm Coast’s two hospitals, was arrested on 14 felony charges on Tuesday and is being held at the Flagler County jail on $70,000 bond.
Bardisa worked at the hospitals from July 3, 2023 to Jan. 22, 2025, when she was fired. During her employment, she had documented contact as a nurse with 4,486 patients, according to the investigation.
The arrest followed an extensive investigation led by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office that ended up involving the federal Department of Health and the state Department of Health, after AdventHealth officials initially provided limited information, citing privacy laws.
The chief nursing officer at AdventHealth Palm Coast brought the allegations to authorities in January and March after she was tasked with conducting an internal investigation on Bardisa, once she was informed that Bardisa was possibly not licensed as a nurse.
Bardisa was going by the name of Autumn “Ruba” Hood, whose license as a registered nurse Bardisa had fraudulently obtained, according to her arrest report. Bardisa is also alleged to have sold prescription medication to another employee (Semaglutide, commonly referred to as Ozempic) and that Bardisa had administered birth control injections to another employee.
Bardisa had been hired on July 3, 2023 as an advanced nurse technician working under the supervision of registered and licensed practical nurses. She had described herself as an “Education First” registered nurse on her application, but had not passed a required test to be so licensed.
She was expected to get her license as a condition of employment, according to her arrest report. She claimed to the Human Resources Department that she’d taken the test on Aug. 15, 2023, and that she’d passed it: she informed Human Resources in mid-October, producing what appeared to be a valid license number. The number belonged to Autumn Hood. Bardisa told the hospital that her license number may not match immediately, because she claimed to have just gotten married and gave a new name: Autumn Rubba.
HR asked her to upload her marriage license to an internal Advent Health database. The license “was later determined to have never been completed,” the investigative report states.
“Advent Health failed to immediately identify that Autumn had never uploaded the marriage license and did not require documentation on why the licensing dates did not match between Autumn Bardisa and Autumn Hood,” the investigative report by sheriff’s detective Adam Barkoskie states. “Due to Autumn Bardisa’s fraudulent use of another person’s identification information, and Advent Health’s oversight on the discrepancies, Autumn was allowed to start the Nurse Residency Program where she graduated on Thursday, June 20, 2024, and accepted a position as a Registered Nurse at Advent Health.”
Bardisa was offered a promotion to Charge Nurse in early January 2025, prompting questions from her colleagues. “An unidentified nurse checked the status of Autumn’s license and discovered that the only license that Autumn Bardisa had was a delinquent Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) license” that had expired in May 2024.
“This prompted Advent Health to start an inquiry which led to asking Autumn Bardisa for her pre-requested marriage license to confirm her licensed identity,” the investigative report states. “Autumn gave several excuses and ultimately could not provide the documentation and was terminated on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.”
Investigators interviewed the real Autumn Hood. Hood told them that her own maiden name was Rubba, that she’d attended the same college as Bardisa, but that she did not know her personally. She had recently married and changed her name to Hood. Hood happens to be an employee of AdventHealth as well, but elsewhere in Florida. The company had not provided her with information about the identity theft, she told investigators–nor had she given permission to anyone to use her identity.
A federal agent requested and was granted “a subpoena from his own legal counsel in reference to remaining supporting documentation that had not been turned over by Advent Health,” the investigation states. “The remaining documentation demanded from Advent Health was the identities of the patients that were provided care by Autumn Bardisa while she was fraudulently employed as a Registered Nurse by Advent Health.” The company requested a few extensions to produce the documents, but did so by last Monday (Aug. 4) .
Bardisa faces seven counts of unlicensed practice of a health care professional and seven counts of fraudulent identification. The State Attorney’s Office may yet add charges. She was arrested on Tuesday at 65 Springwood Drive in Palm Coast, where her vehicle had been located by investigative means.
Pogo says
@Based on the accompanying photo
… all she needs is a gold cross, the size of a cathedral’s front door handles, on a necklace, and the right publicist; a full pardon, and inevitable high level government employment by Trump, DeSantis & CheatThem (motto: fake it til ya make it!) will be on its way.
Yee-Haw!
Marc says
I’m astounded not any mention of AdventHealth’s liability in this fiasco caused by their lack of proper hiring procedures!
Al Bo says
What did the 4,486 patient have to say about her? Helped a colleague lose some weight, and another control her birth plan? Sounds like a hero to me. Give her a dam* license.
Diane Rapacchietta says
I’ve been a professional nurse for over 40 yrs, both as a staff nurse and a nurse manager . It sounds like Advent Hospital has a problem with their Human Resource Department as well as some of the onus falls to the hiring manager for not doing a background check of previous employment. Its frightening to think that someone was able to see patients for so long in a emergency department and no one failed to notice the incompetence . Surely someone oriented her and had cause for concern related her abilities to perform the roll.
NJ says
What was this young woman “thinking” ??? She something Very STUPID and now she could be facing very long jail time! Hopefully NO ONE was injured by her STUPID action as a FAKE nurse!
Brian says
Wow. You would think that Advent Health would have a more comprehensive background check. It’s probably harder to get a job at Wal-Mart.
Broken system says
So she did a good job at fraud! Here in racist murikkka we elect those people so they can enrich themselves! Starve the poor lets eat the rich!!
Jf says
Advent health is the bywords hospital to go to. My friends husband went in 2 days ago with chest pains. They told him that he probably just had a pulled muscle. 45 minutes after the discharge he started sweating and vomiting and still had chest pains. Went to advent health in Ormond and was discharged under the same circumstances. Hi wife wasn’t comfortable and took him to Halifax and 5 hours later was under the knife getting a quadruple bypass. ADVENT HEALTH SUCKS ALL OF THEM!!!
Jay Tomm says
AND??? At least she was helping people & no one seemed to complain about it.
Been there and not surprised says
I applied for a job 2 years ago at the new Advent Hospital on PC Parkway just before they were about to open that facility. I met the “HR director” during orientation. Absolute joke. She said she came from Walmart. That probably explains the absolute screw-up in allowing an uneducated and unlicensed nurse to treat almost 4500 patients in the ER putting them at grave risk. As a side note, I quit the first day I started. That’s after working at Halifax Hospital in Daytona for 20 years (a level 2 trauma center). The powers that be need to find another HR person.
I think Medicare (CMS) should also be notified, and should also conduct an investigation. How many senior citizens were treated in the Advent ER by this fake nurse with poor outcome? What are the stats on that??? How many Medicare claims have been submitted by Advent for care given to senior citizens by a fake nurse? Advent is going to have to take responsibility for false claims.
Why didn’t the hiring manager follow up on the shady credentials?
The place is an absolute joke.
But then again, we also have an unlicensed and uneducated “nutritionist” right here in Palm Coast who’s running for Palm Coast City Council District 3 who thinks it’s funny when confronted about practicing nutrition without a license.
I also have a license to practice in the State of Florida through the FL Department of Health. This story doesn’t surprise me at all remembering my experience when I was in the process of getting hired at Advent.