Florida Woman Arrested After Allegedly Posing As Nurse And Treating Over 4,000 Patients With Stolen License

A Florida female has been arrested aft allegedly posing arsenic a caregiver and treating thousands of patients pinch different nurse's license, authorities said.

Autumn Bardisa, 29, of Palm Coast, is facing 7 counts of practicing a wellness attraction occupation without a licence and 7 counts of fraudulent usage of individual recognition accusation successful relationship pinch nan alleged scheme, nan Flagler County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.

The sheriff's agency said that aft moving astatine AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway Hospital for astir 2 years, Bardisa's workfellow discovered she was not licensed to activity arsenic a caregiver aft she sewage a promotion earlier this year.

In her clip astatine nan hospital, Bardisa "participated successful aesculapian services" for 4,486 patients from June 2024 to January 2025 contempt “never holding a valid nursing license,” nan sheriff's agency said.

Bardisa was hired by AdventHealth connected July 3, 2023, arsenic an precocious caregiver tech, who useful nether nan nonstop supervision of a registered nurse.

When she applied, she allegedly claimed she was an "education first" registered nurse, which meant she had passed nan required schooling to go a registered caregiver but had not yet passed nan nationalist exam for her license.

During nan hiring process, Bardisa told nan infirmary she passed nan exam and provided a licence number that matched her first name, Autumn, but pinch a different past name, nan sheriff's agency said.

Bardisa allegedly tried to explicate nan discrepancy by claiming she had precocious gotten joined and had a caller past name. The infirmary asked her to supply her matrimony licence arsenic proof, but she ne'er did, nan sheriff's agency said.

The sanction and licence number she provided, however, belonged to different nurse, besides named Autumn, who AdventHealth employed astatine a different hospital, nan sheriff’s agency said.

Bardisa past went connected to activity astatine nan infirmary without scrutiny. In January 2025, she was offered a promotion.

The promotion "sparked interest" among her colleagues, nan sheriff's agency said. A chap worker checked nan position of her licence astatine that clip and recovered "she had an expired certified nursing adjunct license, which nan worker reported to administrators," nan sheriff’s agency said.

AdventHealth past opened an investigation into nan declare and recovered Bardisa ne'er provided her matrimony licence to corroborate her identity, nan sheriff’s agency said.

Bardisa was terminated connected Jan. 22 "after she grounded to corroborate her identity," nan sheriff’s agency said. AdventHealth past contacted nan Flagler County Sheriff’s Office to behaviour a criminal investigation.

Autumn Bardisa was arrested astatine her location and is being held connected $70,00 bond.Flagler County Sheriff's Office / via Facebook

The probe took 7 months, successful conjunction pinch nan Florida Department of Health and nan U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and included interviews pinch nan caregiver whose personality Bardisa stole.

The 2 shared nan aforesaid first sanction and had attended nan aforesaid college, but nan different Autumn said they did not personally cognize each other, nan sheriff’s agency said. The Autumn, whose personality Bardisa stole, said AdventHealth told her astir nan fraud successful January 2025.

An apprehension warrant for Bardisa was issued connected Aug. 5, and she was arrested astatine her home. Video footage of her apprehension showed officers confronting her arsenic she was successful her car, wearing bluish scrubs, nan sheriff's agency said.

Sheriff Rick Staly called nan apprehension "one of nan astir disturbing cases of aesculapian fraud we’ve ever investigated."

“This female perchance put thousands of lives astatine consequence by pretending to beryllium personification she was not and violating nan spot of patients, their families, AdventHealth and an full aesculapian community,” Staly continued.

The charging affidavit successful nan lawsuit said AdventHealth "failed to instantly place that Autumn had ne'er uploaded nan matrimony license" and of "oversight connected nan discrepancies" successful Bardisa’s worker information.

AdventHealth said it does not remark connected pending ineligible matters aliases unit matters.

Bardisa remains successful custody arsenic of Thursday morning, wherever she is being held connected $70,00 bond. It’s not instantly clear if she’s retained an attorney, and her arraignment is group for Sept. 2.