Who is Doing Your Job?

I'm transferring my kids' care from the pediatrician to my family doctor.  As with anything medical, paperwork precedes productivity.  So, I took the completed release forms to the pediatrician. 

The next day, I received a call saying I'd have to pick up the records.  Apparently after nearly five years, the records were too bulky to mail or fax.  I'm pretty sure it would have been cheaper for me to mail them a check for postage than to pay for the gas to go get them.  But, we got them and took them to the family doctor. 

The family doctor asked me to call the shot nurse and have her review the transferred vaccination records to determine if any of the kids would need a vaccine during their well visits.  The shot nurse informed me that the shot records were incomplete, either missing altogether or missing the patient's name.  Then she asked me to phone the doctors' offices where the records had originated and get the necessary information.  I asked her for her fax number so I could have those few records transmitted quickly.  Not only did she not know the number, she didn't offer to get it for me. 

At this point, I realized I was agreeing to do her job for her.  In fact, I'd been doing a couple of people's jobs in this process.  As the patient, my responsibility should have ended when I hand delivered the release form requesting the medical records be transferred. 

I'm pretty sure my co-pays for four children over the last four+ years would more than cover any postage that may have been required.  My kids' haven't been that sickly; one priority mailing box, costing less than $10, should have sufficed.  At a minimum, they should have given me the option of being charged for the postage if the $10 was really going to bankrupt them.

I have the utmost respect for my doctor, but I shouldn't have been giving his shot nurse tasks to complete...either the doctor or his nurse should have followed up on that.

As far as the shot nurse asking me to call to get completed records, there are two obstacles.  First, she had the records and knew exactly what she needed.  I didn't have any copies.  More significantly, when was the last time a doctor's office responded more effectively to a discharged patient than to another doctor's office? 

A more rudimentary issue is her not knowing the fax number, or at least offering to find it, especially since she originated the call to me and knew she was going to ask me to acquire information for her.  She should have been prepared to give me the tools I needed to do her job for her.  Don't you think?   Honestly, if she had been able to give me the number, I don't think it would have dawned on me that she was asking me to do her job.

So, who is doing your job?