Home: Patients: Services: Health Records

Health Records

Your care at The Ottawa Hospital is carefully charted in the medical record (usually referred to as the Health Record). It is charted according to the Public Hospitals Act of Ontario and according to professional standards that bind the various health professionals such as doctors, nurses and therapists. This Act governs the contents, retention and access to information contained in the health record.

In accordance with this law, all requests for release of information from your health record must be made in writing with an ink signature to the appropriate campus. Requests made via email will not be processed.

Only general information requests can be handled by telephone.  Please see below for the address and telephone number for each location.

Time of Birth

Our most frequently asked question has been for time of birth. The search for these old records in order to retrieve this tiny piece of information is difficult and time consuming. For this reason, there is a $100. fee required with each written request for time of birth (cheque or money order made payable to The Ottawa Hospital). The request must be directed to the campus where you were born and must include your mother's name and date of birth along with your own date of birth and your witnessed ink signature. For those born at the former Grace Hospital, requests should be directed to the Riverside Campus.

• Obtaining a Birth Certificate (link to Ontario Ministry of Government Services Web site)
  

The Health Records Department can:

• Protect the confidentiality of your record.
• Keep your record for 28 years and release it as needed for your continuing care.
• Allow you to see your own record. There is a fee attached to this service.
• Provide information from the records of the former Grace Hospital, as The Ottawa Hospital now owns those records.

The Health Records Department cannot:

• Tell you who your birth mother is.
• Tell you your blood type. Please contact your family doctor.
• Keep track of your immunizations in an organized fashion. This is your responsibility.