How to Obtain Medical Records

Ontario Hospitals

1. Go to the hospital's website and search for “Health Records”. You may also go directly to the hospital to request your records and pay the administrative fee, as detailed below.
2. Once your search is complete, look for examples such as, “Accessing your Health Information” or “Release of your Personal Health Information”. Please note that Pocket Health or any online access that you can register for does not contain your full medical records.
3. Find the Disclosure, ROI (Release of Information), or Consent to Disclose form provided on the website (these are interchangeable depending on the hospital).
1. If you are requesting records relating to the birth of a child, please ensure that you request both the mother and the infant's records. This should be done under two separate requests.
2. If you are requesting records as a legal guardian on behalf of someone else, or are requesting records for a family member who passed away, you will need to fill in the information under “Substitute Decision-Maker”.
4. Complete the form and then mail or e-mail it to the hospital as directed on the form.
1. If there is no form provided on the website, you may use the following form, found on the Information and Privacy Commission of Ontario's website, or by clicking and downloading the form.
2. If you are requesting records for a deceased family member, you will need to provide a copy of their last will and testament naming you as the executor/trustee of their estate.
3. If your loved one passed away without a will in place, please contact the hospital's Health Records Department and request if they have a form that you can complete to obtain permission to request your loved one's records.
5. Your request should be precise to ensure you receive the records you want:
1. For example: “Please provide any and all clinical notes and records for the dates of [to] and [from], including but not limited to Doctors' notes, Nurses' notes, and Reports for the above-noted person.”
2. You may want to consider requesting records for the 3-month period before the date of the incident until 3 months after the date of the incident. (i.e., if you were injured on March 1, 2023, you may request your records from January 1, 2023-June 1, 2023)
6. There is usually an administrative cost to obtain your records. This is normally CAD$30 + HST for the first 20 pages and then 25 cents per page thereafter.
7. One week after you submit your health information form, we recommend contacting the hospital's Health Records Department via telephone or in-person to confirm that they have received your request and payment.
8. The Hospital has 30 days to fulfill your request. If they cannot fulfill the request within 30 days, they will notify you and inform you that they require additional time to fulfill your request. If you have visited more than one hospital under a parent umbrella network, you will receive all your records from each hospital visited during the relevant time period.
9. Once your request is processed, the hospital will contact you to inform you that your records are ready, and whether there is a balance payable before the records will be released.

Ontario Practitioners

(i.e., Family Doctor (GP), Chiropractor, Specialist, etc.)

1. Call the provider's office and request your records.
2. The provider may request that a $30.00 administrative fee be paid, plus 25 cents per page thereafter.
3. The provider will have 30 days to fulfill your request.