PHIPA DECISION 182

The complainant made an access request to a psychiatrist (the custodian) under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (the Act), for records of personal health information relating to himself. After reviewing the records the custodian provided him, he made a complaint to the IPC on the basis that further records exist that are responsive to his access request, raising the issue of reasonable search. In this decision, the adjudicator finds that the complainant has established that further records may exist, and also that the custodian did not provide sufficient evidence that the search for records was reasonable. The custodian is ordered to conduct a further search for records responsive to the complainant’s request and to provide a written explanation to the complainant regarding the results of the search.