Vaccine Documentation

As I look to a new semester of my undergraduate career, I am faced with the looming task of completing the university’s “To Do” list. Parking Permit, check. Financial Aid Application, check. Loan Counseling(as if completing this for my two older children and my husband wasn’t enough, I have to do it again!), check. Sign promissory note, check. Class Schedule, check. Order books, check. Vaccine Documentation… WHAT?!?!

The university informs me that I must provide vaccine documentation complete with the doctor’s name and the lot number for the vaccine, to which I laugh out loud. She doesn’t understand my amusement and explains to me that all I need to do is call the doctor’s office and they can fax that information to them, which I respond with another laugh. I proceed to inform here that I am old, my doctor died many years ago, the clinic in which I received those shots no longer exists, and they didn’t do lot numbers for the immunizations back then. Confused, she tries to explain it another way and then chastises me saying I really should have a copy of that documentation as it is very important. (More chuckles from my end of the line.) Again I reiterate, doctor dead, clinic gone (mostly lies under that new HEB they built in my hometown), and trying to explain to my almost 79 year old mother where she might look for my immunization records would be a daunting task. So then she explains that I would have to have ALL the immunizations again. At this point, I am no longer amused.

So what do I do??? Email my mother… She responds that it isn’t in her filing cabinet of important documents. I tell her, of course not, they didn’t buy that cabinet until I was in middle school. I told her it is most likely in my baby book. Which she is still looking for…

Next course of action, call the high school I attended. I have an interesting conversation with the registrar. They will look at the microfiche and see if they can have a clearer copy of the immunization records sent to the school (yes, I did say microfiche – Now that really makes me feel old!). She also proceeds to tell me that the doctors call them for immunization verification on their students because the doctors don’t keep records for longer than two years. Mortified, I explain to her that it is required by federal law that medical records be kept for the life of the patient. She responded that she didn’t know such a law existed. I explain to her that my husband has more than 10 years of experience with archiving medical records with “storage.” He knows the law well as he has worked for Dell and now IBM providing these services for medical clinics nationwide. I must say the registrar now has ammunition to tell those doctors she no longer wants to do their job and to keep up their own records as required by law. But they still doesn’t help me.

After that… I ignore the situation entirely. I know… that’s not a good plan. So here I am, less than a week before school starts and we’re moving in 10 days and I must figure out what I need to do about the Immunization Documentation. Any ideas?