PALM COAST, Fla. — A Palm Coast woman has been arrested for posing as a registered nurse and treating over 4,400 patients without a valid license, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said Autumn Bardisa, 29, was arrested following a seven-month investigation that revealed she had impersonated a licensed nurse at AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway.
Bardisa used another individual’s license number to gain employment and provided medical care to thousands of patients from June 2024 through January 2025, investigators said.
“This is one of the most disturbing cases of medical fraud we’ve ever investigated,” said Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly. “This woman potentially put thousands of lives at risk by pretending to be someone she was not and violating the trust of patients, their families, AdventHealth and an entire medical community.”
The investigation into Bardisa began in January 2025 after hospital administrators at AdventHealth reported her for impersonating a registered nurse.
Bardisa had been hired in July 2023 as an advanced nurse technician, claiming she was an Education First” registered nurse who had passed the necessary schooling but not yet the national exam.
Bardisa later provided a license number that matched another nurse with the first name Autumn but a different last name, explaining the discrepancy by claiming she had recently married.
However, she never provided a marriage license as requested by the hospital.
Her alleged deception was uncovered when she was offered a promotion in January 2025, prompting a colleague to check her license status and discover her expired certified nursing assistant license.
This led to her termination and the involvement of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
During the investigation, detectives from the Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reviewed documents and interviewed AdventHealth employees and the nurse whose identity Bardisa had used.
Investigators said they confirmed that Bardisa had never held a valid nursing license.
Bardisa was charged with seven counts of practicing a health care profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information.
She is currently held on a $70,000 bond at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility.
Sheriff Rick Staly is planning to give an update on the arrest Wednesday afternoon.
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