PHIPA DECISION 275

An individual asked a hospital for access to correspondence, messages and documentation between specified doctors related to her deceased father’s two-day hospital stay. After receiving records from the hospital, the complainant stated that additional records should exist.
In this decision, the adjudicator finds that the hospital did not conduct a reasonable search for records as it is obliged to do under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, as it did not search for email communications to and from one named doctor. The adjudicator orders the hospital to conduct a further search for records responsive to the complainant’s request, to provide the adjudicator with a written explanation of the search, and to issue an access decision to the complainant regarding the any additional records it locates as a result of the further search.