[bluebonnet_72]

The children's hospital for our area, one of only 2 in the state, is very unfriendly toward adoption. We have had problems across the board in a variety of clinics, areas, medical records, and billing. They also affiliated with other hospitals and clinics, and if we use them we have the same problems with records.
Our daughters were adopted from fostercare so they were older when they came to us, and privacy is a very important concern.
Here are a few examples of problems. It took 2 years to get all of the birthfamilies phone numbers and addresses off the computer records. I kept telling them to remove them and the would show back up.
We keep filling out paperwork that asks specifically for the "biological parents" information. This would be fine if it were in the medical history section, but this is the general info. like phone numbers, addresses, job information. I am always have to cross out the words biological and write "adoptive." They should just ask for the legal parents information.
They held our income tax return because of an unpaid bill for my daughter's birth. We didn't meet my daughter till she was almost 2!
Three years after the adoption, one clinic kept refering to her birth mom as "mom" and me as "the adoptive mom." They wanted to know everything about her birthmother, including if she currently had a job, but almost nothing about our family.
The last time we has a test done, the nurse called and asked if I was the biological mom. When I said, I was the adoptive mom, she said I had to bring her adoption decree to prove I could consent to her treatment. Wouldn't her birthcertificate work? I know they don't ask biological families for proof they are the child's parents.
I would complain, but where do you complain when it is a system wide problem. This happens everytime we deal with the hospital or any clinic, or physician's office associated with the particular hospital. It's really getting old. I don't even know where to send a letter, but I need to do something.

[rtsmom]

Wow, that is all really frustrating. I don't have any advice but I do understand your feelings and concerns around this. Could a social worker help advocate? Maybe even one of the hospital's social workers might 'get' it?

[sambob]

Since you adopted the kids when they were a little older, the doctor's office may not be able to remove or change the information about the biological parents because that information is part of the official record. There *should* be a way to document that you are the parent now, however. It's possible they don't have a central records system, and no way to know that custody has changed hands. I think it would be very beneficial to write a well-composed letter pointing out some 'flaws' in their system, as well as suggestions for ways to improve, including customer service training on custody and adoption issues.

[swd]

I don't know if this will help, but it may be something to look into....

Can you change their social security numbers? And put your name on their birth certificate if you haven't already?

This is what we are planning to do once our son's adoption is final. His name is changing, so his BC and SS card have to also, and we're just going to go ahead and get him a new SSN while we're at it, so there's no confusion. Baby Boy Jones, SSN 123-45-6789 will officially be My Son Smith, SSN 987-65-4321. Maybe if the hospitals/clinics have a different SSN for your kids they will be able to clean up the records a bit.

[Dickons]

Please go speak to the Privacy and Compliance Officer at the hospital and then follow up with a letter outlining all the items discussed/actions and then send the letter certified mail (and keep a copy).

Good luck,
Dickons

[Quesita]

Yeah. I think that you should date and bullet each of the incidents described in your post, and send it to someone in hospital administration. And I agree with Dickons that you should send it certifed mail/return receipt requested. It will get more attention.

I have not had as many incidents, but my daughter's pediatrician's staff have proven very unhelpful. They flat out refused to write a letter to my daycare provider using my daughter's legal name, because her insurance card was in her previous name. It took me three hours after I brought in the court order for someone to hand write Liana Lastname may return to Work/School on Day/Month/Year.

Six months later, long after I had provided the court order, shown Liana's passport, and had the insurance card under the name Liana, they still gave me a letter for her preschool under the name Kimberly. They claimed there was nothing they could do. It was "the City." Apparently, without my knowlege, they had been reporting her vaccination records to a centralized city database, and apparently since her first vaccines had been done under "Kimberly", they could not give me a letter for her school stated that Liana had had vaccines.

Now if they had told me that they were reporting a a centralized city database, and that I needed to send them the court order, I would have done that.