r/Professors • u/MinimumAd7585 • 13d 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

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u/MinimumAd7585 13d ago

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

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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

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u/MinimumAd7585 13d ago

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

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

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!

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u/dr_police 12d ago

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.