FAQs for Medical Records
Please select the question to access the drop-down response.
Advance Care Planning
If you are 18 or older, and mentally competent, then you have the right to make decisions about your medical care. Advanced directives are legal forms that outline your decisions.
You can send a copy of your advance care planning document to HIM via email: HIMROI@wakemed.org HIM will import this information into your medical record.
If you interested in preparing an advance care planning document and need assistance, please visit Spiritual Care Advance Care Planning.
Birth and Death Certificates
WakeMed does not provide copies of birth or death certificates.
Please contact the County Register of Deeds Offices to obtain birth and death certificates Birth, Death & Marriage Certificates | Wake County Government
Contact Us
Hours of Operation
Monday – Friday 8:30 am – 5 pm
Telephone
919-350-8370 and select the appropriate prompt.
Mailing Address
WakeMed Health & Hospitals
Attn: HIM Department
3000 New Bern Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27610
Fax Numbers
Requests for Copies of Records: 919-350-1720
Patient Care (Providers and Healthcare Facilities): 919-350-7985
Requests for Copies of Records: HIMROI@wakemed.org
Please keep in mind that communications via email may not be secure. Although unlikely, there is a possibility that information you include in an email can be intercepted and read by other parties beside the person to whom it is addressed. For secure transmission of sensitive information, including this form, we recommend corresponding via fax or USPS mail.
Medical Record Corrections
According to WakeMed’s Notice of Privacy Practices, you can request a correction using the Amendment to Protected Health Information (PHI) Form. WakeMed will decide whether the health information is incorrect or incomplete and revise your health record accordingly. You will be notified of the decision, in writing, as quickly as possible, but no later than 60 days, unless you are notified of the need for a one-time 30-day extension.
Decedent Records
If you need to request a copy of a deceased patient’s record, you will be asked to provide the following documentation:
- Copy of the death certificate
- Completed authorization form
- Court documentation: If the decedent had an estate, court documentation must indicate the name of the legal executor/administrator
- No legal document: In the case in which there is no estate, the surviving spouse or next of kin will need to complete the Affidavit of Surviving Spouse or Next of Kin Form
Imaging Records
Requests for 210PET Imaging
Patients requesting 210PET Imaging may complete and return the 210PET Imaging Authorization to Release Medical Information, as these requests require a separate authorization.
Requests for other Imaging (X-rays, CTs, MRIs, etc.)
Many facilities can receive electronic images through PowerShare. You can select PowerShare on your Authorization to Release Healthcare Information form. If you select PowerShare, and your provider is unable to accept electronic images, WakeMed will mail a CD to the provider you indicate as recipient.
If you request a personal copy of a CD of your imaging studies, you will need to allow 48-hours for processing.
Legal Requests
Attorneys for Non-Subpoenaed Requests Fax to
Copy Service at 919-350-8991
Court Orders and Subpoenas Mail to
WakeMed Health & Hospitals
Attn: Office of Legal Affairs
3000 New Bern Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27610
Please note that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 8-53 and the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), 42 C.F.R. § 164.512 restrict when medical records can be produced. WakeMed generally can provide such records only in response to a valid court order from a North Carolina or federal court with appropriate jurisdiction or a HIPAA-compliant patient authorization.
Release of Information Restrictions
According to WakeMed’s Notice of Privacy Practices, you have the right to request restrictions on the use and disclosure of your protected health information (PHI). WakeMed may not be required to abide by your request. If WakeMed agrees to any request for restriction of your PHI, WakeMed staff will honor such request unless disclosure of information is required by applicable law; unless required to provide you with emergency medical treatment; or until you terminate the restriction in writing.
Notice of Privacy Practices
WakeMed identifies how your information is shared in our Notice of Privacy Practices. Anytime your information is released as required by law, an entry is made in our disclosure log. You can request to see these entries for anytime frame during the past 6 years by completing the Request for an Accounting of Disclosures Form.
If you are a patient or the patient’s personal representative, simply present a valid, signed, and dated HIPAA authorization. Other requesters should read and be familiar with the following:
Required by law. WakeMed is required by law to obtain a signed attestation that clearly states the requested use or disclosure is not for the prohibited purposes described below, where the request is for PHI for any of the following purposes:
- Health oversight activities
- Law enforcement
- Judicial or administrative proceedings
- Regarding decedents, disclosures to coroners and medical examiners
Prohibited Purposes. WakeMed may not use or disclose PHI for the following purposes:
- To conduct a criminal, civil, or administrative investigation into any person for the mere act of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawful reproductive health care.
- To impose criminal, civil, or administrative liability on any person for the mere act of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawful reproductive health care.
- To identify any person for any purpose described in (1) or (2).9
Prohibition Applies. When the reproductive health care at issue:
- Is lawful under the law of the state in which such health care is provided under the circumstances in which it is provided.
- Is protected, required, or authorized by Federal law, including the United States Constitution, under the circumstances in which such health care is provided, regardless of the state in which it is provided.
- Is provided by another person and presumed lawful.
INSTRUCTIONS
Information for the Person Requesting the PHI. When signing an attestation, you:
- Are verifying that you are not requesting PHI for a prohibited purpose and acknowledging that criminal penalties may apply if untrue.
- May not add content that is not required or combine this form with another document except where another document is needed to support your statement that the requested disclosure is not for a prohibited purpose. For example, if the requested PHI is potentially related to reproductive health care that was provided by someone other than the covered entity or business associate from whom you are requesting the PHI, you may submit a document that supplies information that demonstrates a substantial factual basis that the reproductive health care in question was not lawful under the specific circumstances in which it was provided.13
See 45 CFR 160.103 (definition of “Reproductive health care”)