I’m sure it is complicated, and it’s a good thing that it is. That way only the most educated crooks can exploit it. =P
What you’re giving as a reason could be a legitimate reason. It’s not the reason that the HDOH gave. Their reason wasn’t about the difficulty in getting the record; their reason was that somehow having that information available to the public would make the HDOH office fall apart, make the certificates all suspect, and allow anybody in the world to hack their system.
That’s also the reason they won’t provide the paper records I requested - for which the reasons you gave cannot be cited.
Actually, sometimes disclosing what information is tracked can truly compromise a system.