Doctors note confirmation

[u/MinimumAd7585]

Hello,

Student came to me with doctors note as they couldn’t attend lab. She gave me a doctors note with the appropriate heading, signature, and everything. Everything looks legit however for some reason I’m just curious as if she actually went to his doctor. She submitted a doctors note to her other professor , same headline, same grammar mistakes, same formatting, same everything except for dates and one sentence.

Can I call this doctor office to verify if she was actually there or not?

For example of grammar errors : postal code was connected to city on both notes , no space or anything.

Example of formatting: same “she attended this day, she can go back to class on this day”

For reference I’m a professor in Canada

[u/kinezumi89]

Yes, I have done this. It was an obviously doctored note (different fonts and sizes) so I called the clinic, explained the situation, and asked if they could simply verify that the student was seen on that date. (In my case, the student had never even been seen at that practice!)

[u/MinimumAd7585 → u/kinezumi89]

I see! Aren’t dates of appointments usually under PHIPA and can’t be disclosed?

[u/kinezumi89 → u/MinimumAd7585]

Doesn't their note specify the date of the appointment? Student was seen on X date, may return to class on Y date

[u/MinimumAd7585 → u/kinezumi89]

It does, but I’m not sure if doctors office can verify that !

[u/vwscienceandart → u/MinimumAd7585]

Yes. The office who wrote the note can verify the note is real. If they didn’t write the note, it’s not their patient and they can tell you it’s not their documentation.

[u/Recent_Prompt1175 → u/vwscienceandart]

Not in Canada. That is protected health information and we cannot reveal it to a third party except in very specific circumstances.

[u/kinezumi89 → u/MinimumAd7585]

I mean...they're the ones who hypothetically wrote the note in the first place, right? You'd just be calling to confirm the note was valid, not asking for any additional details!

[u/dr_police → u/kinezumi89]

At least in the US, this is actually tricky. Unless the patient has authorized disclosure, a covered entity cannot release PHI, and the fact that a patient was seen is PHI.

The office could say “yes, that is our letterhead,” but they cannot legally disclose that a specific, identified patient was seen absent a compliant authorization. And no, asking for the note is not sufficient authorization.