Patient Data and Documents

Patient data is primarily given only by the patient's consent. If you are unable to give consent due to your condition, we will give information only to the next of kin, unless there is reason to assume that you would deny this.  We cannot give information to anyone else due to professional secrecy and confidentiality. We wish that the next of kin can come to an agreement on who should enquire about the patient and then inform the rest of the next of kin.

If you require individual patient documents, e.g. for officials, insurance companies or private practitioners, you can fill out the "Patient register data copy request form" and send it to the patient data archive of the respective hospital. Alternatively you can compose a free-form letter, where you should include the following information:

• The patient's first, middle and last names (also previous names)
• Your personal identity code
• Details about the requested patient documents
• The name of the requester
• The telephone number of the requester
• The address where the documents are to be delivered
• Date
• The patient's or his/her guardian's signature and print name.

You can also send a free-form request electronically via Suomi.fi Messages (instructions on Registry's page).

Contact information for Patient data archives

X-ray images and information about them are distributed by the Medical Imaging Centre of Southwest Finland.

Everyone shall have the right of access to the data about him/her in a personal data file (Personal data act, section 26). The right is personal.

The access request must be presented personally in a health care unit or by a document signed personally or by a document certified equivalently. If more than one copy of the information is requested, we may charge a reasonable fee based on the administrative costs (Article 15 (3) of the Data Protection Regulation).

• If you want to access your patient data during a personal visit in the presence of a health care professional, contact the unit that last treated you.
• If you want to check your patient data and request your information as printouts or copies, deliver either one of the documents below to the patient data archive of the hospital you are requesting information from:
  • The "Patient register data check request" form
  • A free-form signed request with the patient's name, personal identification number, address, telephone number and the details of the requested information (treatment subject/period of time).
  • You can also send a free-form request electronically via Suomi.fi Messages (instructions on Registry's page).

The right of access can be denied only by a special reason, and the negative decision is given in a written certificate of denial, in which you can find the reason of denial.

Health care officials will assess whether an under-age person can decide on their own treatment. If so, the under-age patient can check their own patient data. In other cases, the right is vested in the patient's guardian or another legal representative. If an under-age patient can decide on their own care, they have the right to deny their guardian's access to the data.

Patient data is confidential even after the patient has died. The data of a deceased patient can only be given out to the extent of what is absolutely necessary in discovering and fulfilling the important benefits and rights of the person requesting the data. The person requesting the data does not have limitless access to the patient data of the deceased. The request must always include the purpose of use (the basis for distribution). The request can be done via the form "Requisition for the distribution of the patient data of a deceased person" (form in Finnish) or by a free-form application. The request is sent to the patient data archive of the hospital.

You have the right to correct inaccurate and incorrect information about you. If you feel that your information needs to be corrected, you can alternatively submit your request by post to the hospital district registry or electronically:

• by submitting a completed form "Demand for rectification of information in the patient data register", or
• by submitting a free-form, written request in which you should identify and justify what information you require to be corrected, what information you believe is correct, and how you request the correction to be made. The text to be replaced, deleted or supplemented must be described verbatim, or
• uou can also send a free-form request electronically via Suomi.fi Messages

When a patient requests a change to a patient's record, it is assessed whether there are grounds for correcting, supplementing or deleting it and whether the information is necessary for treatment. Reasonable treatment conclusions from a healthcare professional will not be changed, even if the patient disagrees with them. An entry that corresponds to the perception prevailing at the time of making the entry, even if the diagnosis recorded earlier later, for example, turns out to be incorrect, is also not considered incorrect.

If the request is not accepted, the patient will be given a written reply about the decision. The reply will include the grounds for denial.

In the act of the electronic processing of social and health care client data (9.2.2007/159), it is decreed that the patient has a right to receive information about who has used or who has been given information regarding to the patient and what has been the basis of the use or distribution by a written request from the health care services provider. Information older than two years is not eligible unless specifically stated.

The customer may not use or disclose the information he or she has received about the further processing of his or her patient data for any purpose other than to clarify his or her rights related to the processing of his or her patient data. The request can be made by the form "Request for report on patient register usage log information" (form in Finnish and Swedish) or by sending a free-form request to the registry of the hospital district.