How to Request Your Medical Records From Northwest Community Hospital

If you had to go to Northwest Community Hospital, you might be wondering how to request your medical records. You might need them for your own records, or because your doctor wasn't able to get them themselves.

You have the right to request your medical records, including such things as x-rays and diagnostic testing results. DoNotPay can help you work out how to get your medical records, and can help you get records from Northwest Community Hospital and other hospitals such as Kaiser, Mercy, Baptist, and Cleveland Clinic.

What Types of Medical Records Are Restricted From Being Released?

For the most part, you have the right to access all of your medical records. However, there are a few things hospitals do not have to release to you:

• Peer review files, patient safety activity, and other hospital records not used to make decisions about an individual.
• Psychotherapy notes. Your counselor does not have to release to you their personal notes after a counseling session.
• Information that might be used in a civil, criminal, or administrative action.
• In most cases, you can't access somebody else's medical records. However, you do have a right if you are somebody's personal representative. This most often involves the records of minors, but if you have medical power of attorney or are caregiver for a vulnerable adult, you can also access their information. Physicians may refuse to release records if they believe abuse is going on. But otherwise, if you are authorized to make healthcare decisions for a person, you can access their information.

How to Request Medical Records From Northwest Community Hospital

If you or your child received treatment at Northwest Community Hospital and you need to request your medical records, the hospital offers a couple of ways to do so. Here's the procedure:

1. Go to their website and click on the Patients and Visitors menu, then on Medical Records.
2. You can do any of the following:

• Create a NorthshoreConnect account, which you do by requesting an access code. This is probably a good idea if this is your local hospital, or
• Download a medical record request form and email it to releaseforms@northshore.org or fax to 847-992-4499.

Note that it typically takes 7 to 10 days to get them, but you can walk into the medical records center at the hospital where you were treated Monday through Friday, 7:30 pm to 4 pm CST, which will typically let you pick them up faster.

However, things can get more complicated for some forms of records, because the hospital does not store them centrally. Instead, you have to call the specific department. Check out the table below.

So, you have to remember which department and which location, and these are some of the most commonly-requested items. If you need to fill out the medical records release form, you will need the date of service and what you are asking for. Note that you can directly authorize the release to another individual, such as your doctor. Bear in mind that hospitals are not required to keep medical records forever.

How to Transfer Medical Records to Northwest Community Hospital

If you need the hospital to be able to look at medical records from another provider, then you will need to contact that provider to get them to send the records over. Even with modern electronic health records, this is not automatic. DoNotPay can help you contact the provider to get your records properly transferred ahead of your appointment.

Does Northwest Community Hospital Charge for Medical Records?

While you have the right to request your records, some hospitals charge an administrative charge for printed records and printouts of radiology images.

Northwest Community Hospital does not release any charges, but typically you can expect to pay for large printouts and for CDs of radiology and cardiology images, especially if you want them for yourself instead of getting them sent to your doctor.

Request Your Medical Records from Northwest Community Hospital With the Help of DoNotPay

If you are looking at the situation and getting stressed about requesting your medical records, don't worry, DoNotPay can help. If you are having particular difficulty getting your records, we can write you a simple, clear, and effective request letter that will convince them to release your records quickly. Just do the following:

1. Look up medical records on DoNotPay's website.

2. Enter the name of the health care provider you'd like to receive medical records from.

3. Answer a few questions about your provider and where you'd like to send the records.

Simple. If the regular form doesn't work, we can make sure that you get your records and that they get to your doctor safely.

What Else Can DoNotPay Do?

DoNotPay can help with all of your annoying and tedious problems. No matter what is aggravating you today, our AI Consumer Champion can help solve it. Here are some things that DoNotPay can assist with:

• Writing up an advance healthcare directive
• Requesting sick leave
• Getting a copy of a birth certificate

DoNotPay can help with these things and more so that you can get on with your life.