UPDATE: LANSING - Keeping track of medical records is very critical. If medical forms are lost or forgotten when going to a new doctor, you would have to start over causing duplicate shots.

The Michigan Care Improvement Registry helps to prevent this. The registry keeps medical records stored electronically on file to be accessed by medical professionals anywhere in Michigan.

Michigan Care Improvement Registry (MCIR) is a centralized lifetime registry open for everyone.

It is a law in Michigan that all children's records must be in the registry and only recommended for adults.

Department of Community Health Immunization Manager, Pat Vranesich said that there are more than fifty-five hundred healthcare facilities and four-hundred public health clinics which use MCIR.

The registry allows doctors to look at their patients and to see those that need certain shots. They then can send a letter from MCIR to remind them to come in for that vaccine.

MCIR also provides easy to print official immunization records for college, daycare and camp requirements.

The online registry is confidential. It is only for health care providers to see and for families also when a request is made.

ORIGINAL STORY: LANSING - The Michigan Department of Community Health sponsors a new way to stay organized. Watch Meridian Magazine for details.