How to find really old medical records???

Now this is coming from someone who lives in a city of only 45,000 people so it's probably not going to work for you, but I'm sure I could find an old hospital from looking at the archives of the District Plan for my city. We have District Councils here for each city and they administer all the necessities required to run a city. They also keep plans of streets, buildings, etc in that district and I'm sure it goes way back in time!! Just a thought.

Another idea just came to me. What about local libraries or museums? Also (now this is way out there!!) what about trying to find some really old people (like in retirement homes or nursing homes) with good memories who could remember where the hospital was. I just bet someone like that could help you. You'd probably make their day! You've got to do some very inventive detective work here...

Good luck!

Sisters, thank you SO much!!!
You have given me some great leads, and I'll get on the horn and start tracking them down Monday morning.
Told ya I was clueless (what's a PCP!)
He would have those records too, but he would be in his 90's now , can't find a thing on him, either.... hard to believe so much water over the dam since then.

Silverfern - you would make a great PI (private eye), Angela Lansbury - move OVER!....but it's 1.5 million here, and I suspect far less beautiful than where you live!

One thing I did find out is that in my state, they are required to keep records only for 7 years, but many keep them voluntarily for alot longer than that. No one seems to know if that was true back then, but they said if it had ever been microfilmed, the chances are better.......

Keep fingers crossed, and I'll let you know how this pans out.

hugs,
joano

	Quote:
Originally posted by joano Told ya I was clueless (what's a PCP!) He would have those records too, but he would be in his 90's now , can't find a thing on him, either.... hard to believe so much water over the dam since then. hugs, joano

When I was talking about your PCP...I meant to use the PCP you have now or had between the old dude and the one you have now. Or any doc you saw since you saw the old PCP. It is worth a shot to call them and see if they have a copy of your old records.

Ahhhhhh - I see what you mean Marian - except that there was an extremely long gap when I did not have a PCP, never transferred any records, etc.. In fact, before hyst, my last doc visit was in '94, for a cut hand. I guess those days are over.

The doc for the cut hand, was he your regular doc? If so, you still might want to check, they might have sent over records without you knowing about it. Worth a shot anyway. But calling a hospital and asking where they store their records and then calling that company might help. Even if that company doesn't have them, they should be able to give you name and numbers of other companies that store records. Wish there was something else I could do to help. It has got to be very frustrating for you.
Also, it couldn't hurt to ask the GYN who did your surgery if he knows where the "no longer exists" hospital has their records. He might have had to request records for other patients of his.
Good luck and let me know how you are coming along with all of this.

Hi Sisters - Well, it did not pan out after all, as you might have guessed.

I found out a few things though. I was able to locate which hospital it was - The (State) Hospital Association had a website where you could put in the old name of the hospital and do a search. It gave me the current name etc. and I called medical records there, and they verified it.

I later called them to see how long hospitals in my state are required to store - answer: 7 years, but some voluntarily store for longer than that. Not the case at my hospital - all records prior to 1996 have been destroyed. So, just to be sure, I asked what company stored the records. They gave me the name and number, but said that if I called, no one there would even talk to me. Boy, were they right! lol!

Then, still undeterred, I called the Atlanta number that you gave me, Jane - and they were incredibly nice - kept passing the call from supervisor to supervisor - I guess because it was so unusual, not because I asked them to. They even checked for me, under my name and both doctors names but they had nothing.

I then called every doctor in the area with the same (common, unfortunately) last name as the younger doctor, and not one of them was that doctor - or the son or daughter. Oh well.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions - I really appreciate it!
If yours are less than 7 years old and you don't have them - I hope you'll get them while you still can - this was NUTHIN' like that TV commercial where they find the 1967 scan of Tom Embry's liver - in a nanosecond. Yeah, right.

hugs,
joano

Sorry Joano.

I was told they even destroy all the film also.

I'm going to get all the current copies of my records that I can.

I'm sure it would have saved me a surgical biopsy if they had been available.

Take care.

joano,
Sorry to hear you are not able to get the records. You gave it a good try. We have all learned to get copies as soon as we can.

Jane

((Joanno))

What a bummer!!!! Still, you certainly didn't leave a stone unturned in your search. Well done! I guess it just wasn't meant to be.