I applaud your diligence and your pride in your job. I apologize that I am so opinionated. But, for me it just makes more sense for a records transfer to be complete and done. You may know, but I know my staff and probably many others wouldn't know what they want. And, it is impossible to know. If I got a copy of records that said this is the past three years of a patient who was eight years old, I would immediately ask for the rest.
And, if I sent a copy of records to someone who asked for only such and such and send the rest later, I would tell them either take them all now or you will never get them. I know that sounds bad for the patient, it will take just as much time and now I have to do it twice.
In the old days, I can see not wanting to print 200 sheets of paper and then fax them all manually. But, it takes the same amount of time to make a pdf of all records and burn them to a CD as it does to send six months worth. In fact, it takes longer to go through and fine what they are requesting.
We send a very organized PDF file where every sheet has been scrutinized, fax cover sheets, duplicates and plain sheets of paper are deleted. I will admit that would take a bit longer on large files. But, once the pdf is made, it is in a folder with the patient's name in another folder called Transferred Records. Now we have a perfect copy to send if needed. Just today we got a release from another office wanting the same records we sent two years ago to another office. I am sure the parent simply put down each office. In fact, the other office is known for only sending records that they generate, which is crazy. There they are with 300 pages of our records and probably 30 pages of theirs. Now what does the mother do. She has to request them from us. We could make a big deal over it and tell the requesting office that we had already sent them. But, why? We can just use Windows Fax and Scan and send them in an hour. Plus, I don't think we have a choice anyway.
I will say that any office which won't send records they didn't generate is....well I won't even say.
Again, no offense. It sounds like you are incredible at your job. It just seems so much easier and even better for the patient if their entire record is now at the new provider's office. They can decided (especially with a pdf) which records they deem important and which they don't.
