Kaski: Incorporate immunization status reports into doctor visits

People have the right to choose whether to get vaccinated. But they cannot make a choice if they aren’t aware they have a choice to make.

How many can identify within six months (or even a year) when they had their most recent tetanus shot? It’s pretty standard and recommended every 10 years to protect against potentially fatal lockjaw that can start as innocently as stepping on a rusty nail.

People can choose not to get a tetanus booster, but they can’t make an informed choice if they don’t know they’re due for a tetanus booster.

Far too many Michigan residents lose track of their immunization status. Whether they support getting a vaccine or not, they simply don’t know where they stand and forget to ask.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Every health care provider in the state has direct access to the Michigan Care Improvement Registry, which provides access to immunization records. As a longtime registered pharmacist, I can say first-hand that it takes me 30 seconds to call up an MCIR report on any of my patients. I can then spend 10 more seconds and a sheet of paper and give them what could be invaluable information.

Whether my patients choose to act on it is always their choice.

The nonprofit Blue Water Immunization Partnership supports vaccines as proven, demonstrably safe ways to protect our citizens from potentially life-threatening illnesses, such as measles, polio, mumps, whooping cough, tetanus and many more — options that weren’t available as recently as the 1960s.

But more than that, the partnership supports giving people the information they need to make the choices they believe are right for them and their families.

We urge every Michigan physician, dentist, pharmacist, hospital and clinic to incorporate an MCIR status report into their standard operating procedure every time a patient visits.

There’s no advocacy or arguments about the merits of this vaccine or that, just information.

The report could save lives and improve the quality of life for many. And it doesn’t infringe in any way on a patient’s right to decide.

We are healthcare providers, not politicians. We don’t want to get involved in the political scene in that vaccines today have found themselves in, and we don’t have to.

It all comes down to one undeniable fact: People cannot make a choice if they don’t know there’s a choice to be made.

Jim Kaski is a licensed pharmacist in St. Clair County and president of the Blue Water Immunization Partnership.