Business ProfileforMontefiore Medical Center

Since November of '23, I have been trying to retrieve my medical records from Montefiore. I live in ****** now, but grew up in ********, so I was treated at ** hospitals for most of my life. The medical records I have been trying to retrieve have to due with a previous ****** diagnosis. I had 2 tumor removal surgeries (2004, 2005) along with various follow-**** MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, etc... When I reached out as a patient myself, I did not hear back. I started to reach out with the letterhead from the doctor whom I work for (at ************ Hospital), I finally started to hear back (January '24) . My medical history/background was kept from me as a child, in fact, I did not learn it was ****** until early 2020, when I confronted my mother. It was done to protect me, however, as a grown adult, now living in a different state, I feel as though it is imperative to my health to have these records on file. I've been asked by many physicians about my history of the ******, but have been a poor historian due to my lack of exposure to the information. A few months ago, I was looking through the few documents that I actually have available to me and noticed, at one point, the doctors thought the ****** had metastasized to my lungs, which now explains the breathing treatments I used to do as a child (I never knew the purpose of this prior). This made me realize the true importance of needing to get my records and I really did not think it would be this challenging. I have been in contact with the medical records department at Montefiore, and they are saying they are unable to locate my records- this is completely unacceptable. I understand that back in the day, things were kept on paper, but the whole point of a medical records department is to keep medical records of their previous patients secure. They are not claiming that they have been destroyed, just that they cannot find them.