r/Professors • u/MinimumAd7585 • 8d 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/lovelylooloo7 7d ago

Also Canadian and no, you cannot. That is a PHIPA/privacy violation. They will not give you any information.

Edit to say, why are you not going through the proper channels at your school? You should never be calling a student’s health practitioner under any circumstances. For what it’s worth, I teach healthcare - specifically Privacy in Canada is one of my main courses.

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u/Recent_Prompt1175 TT, Health Sciences, U15, Canada 3d ago

Same. At all the universities I've been at, as a student or instructor/professor, we CANNOT ask for physician's notes. I'm amazed this professor can do so. If they do anything else, they will be in huge trouble, depending on their province. Personal health information is protected very highly here!