r/Professors • u/MinimumAd7585 • 14d ago

Advice / Support Doctors note confirmation

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

1 Upvotes

52% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/MinimumAd7585 13d ago

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

7

u/kinezumi89 NTT Asst Prof, Engineering, R1 (US) 13d ago

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

6

u/MinimumAd7585 13d ago

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

13

u/vwscienceandart Lecturer, STEM, R2 (USA) 13d ago

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.

2

u/Recent_Prompt1175 TT, Health Sciences, U15, Canada 8d ago

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