Requests involving medical records

Request for access to medical records

The information on file may answer questions you have about care and services provided and may help you understand a situation that concerns you.

If you are 14 or older, you have the right to:

  • Confidentiality
  • Access your records in a timely manner
  • Have your records transferred
  • Be assisted by a professional
  • Appeal the decision if you are refused access to your records

The CAAP can help you draft your request to access your records. Since you usually get a copy of your file or part of it, there may be photocopying fees associated with your request. You can ask to be notified of any costs before the documents are copied.

If your request is denied, you have the right to seek remedy from Commission d’accès à l’information.

Request to correct information

If you request to access your medical record and find incomplete, inaccurate, ambiguous, or outdated information, you can request the record be corrected. Such a request must be about facts, for example if the doctor wrote down that they operated on your right hand when it was your left hand, a date is wrong, or you are no long taking certain medication.

In principal, professional opinions in your records cannot be modified. For example, a patient’s symptoms, a clinical hypothesis, an assessment, or medical diagnosis. You can, however, get a second opinion for another professional which would be recorded in the file. You can also add notes to your records about things you find inappropriate.

Requests should be addressed in writing to the person responsible for access to documents (commonly referred to as “archives”) at the facility holding your records. We can help you draft your request. Call us!

 

Independent of the health and social services network

Le CAAP est un organisme communautaire, financé par le ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux. Nous déterminons de façon autonome notre mission, nos approches, nos pratiques et nos orientations. Il s’agit d’un organisme à but non lucratif (OBNL) dirigé par un conseil d’administration élu par nos membres.

Ainsi, nous accompagnons et informons nos usagers en toute indépendance des commissariats aux plaintes et autres composantes du réseau de la santé. Nous sommes au service des citoyens.

Le rôle du CAAP dans le réseau de la santé et des services sociaux est reconnu dans les articles 76.6 et 76.7 de la LSSSS.

Excerpt from the Act respecting health services and social services (ARHSSS)

76.6. Le ministre doit […] confier à un organisme communautaire de la région le mandat d’assister et d’accompagner, sur demande, les usagers qui y résident et qui désirent porter plainte auprès d’un établissement de cette région […].

76.7. [L’organisme] a pour fonctions, sur demande, d’assister l’usager dans toute démarche qu’il entreprend en vue de porter plainte auprès d’un établissement, d’une agence ou du Protecteur des usagers et de l’accompagner pendant la durée du recours, y compris lorsque la plainte est acheminée vers le conseil des médecins, dentistes et pharmaciens d’un établissement. Il informe l’usager sur le fonctionnement du régime de plaintes, l’aide à clarifier l’objet de la plainte, la rédige au besoin, l’assiste et l’accompagne, sur demande, à chaque étape du recours, facilite la conciliation avec toute instance concernée et contribue, par le soutien qu’il assure, à la satisfaction de l’usager ainsi qu’au respect de ses droits.

Source : Publication Québec

The Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner

The Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner

The office of a service quality and complaints commissioner is like a “complaints desk” at a public institution within the health and social services network.

These “complaint desks” are staffed by teams that examine the complaints they receive to ensure users’ rights are respected. The teams generally include a commissioner and assistant commissioners. There are also medical examiners who deal with complaints against physicians.

They are responsible for:

  • Receiving the complaint
  • Conducting an investigation to determine whether the complaint is founded
  • Issuing conclusions based on the results of the investigation
  • Making recommendations if they feel that measures can be put in place to improve the situation

This applies to all complaints about services at an institution, including affliated facilities.

Commissioners have a duty of impartiality. They report directly to the board of directors of the institution. The complaints commissioner is one of the most accessible and fastest means of recourse in the health and social services system!

Complaint examination process

The adoption of the Act respecting health services and social services in 1991 led to implementation of the complaint examination process. With this step, the Government of Quebec confirmed the right of any person dissatisfied with the services they received to file a complaint and to be assisted and accompanied in this process.