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Any time you have medical tests that have never been looked at, patients could be at risk. That's why thousands of echocardiograms are being reviewed at Harlem Hospital. That is a serious test, a sonogram of the heart that measures how well the heart is functioning.

It was initially reported that Columbia Medical School, which staffs and manages doctors at the hospital found that 4,000 echocardiogram tests over the past three years were never reviewed. An echocardiogram is a sonogram of the heart that measure how well it is functioning.

Upon further investigation, the Health & Hospitals Corporation, which runs the city's public hospitals, says 7,000 tests in total are being looked at again because they were either never read to begin with, or not signed off on by a doctor. It also found this problem was actually going on much longer, dating back to 2005.

So far, they've discovered seven patients who may have needed medical treatment based on a review of their records. Three of those patients have been seen and are okay, and three others are on the schedule to be seen again.

Officials were still trying to reach that seventh patient, who was just identified Friday.

The public hospital system will not confirm if records show that any of these patients have passed away.

A spokesperson from public hospitals says that HHC and Columbia are taking joint responsibility for this and they hope to wrap up the process by early next week. One doctor in charge has already been fired and another demoted as a result of this.

The State Health Department is also investigating.

This all happened as doctors tried to read first the records of the patients they thought were most at risk.

To prevent this from happening in the future, HHC and Columbia have already changed their policy to make sure records are reviewed 48 hours after a patient undergoes testing.

Right now, they say the focus is on making their way through their backlog of records and reaching out to any patients who look like they may need care right away. At this point, they are saying it would premature to comment.

The hospital has a 24-hour hotline going for concerned patients, which can be reached it by calling 311.