Release of Information for Ongoing Care

Eastern Health provides a centralised service for Release of Information (ROI) for medical practitioners and external health care providers involved in patient care.

My Health Record

At first instance, practitioners should check the patients My Health Record, as copies of the patient’s discharge summary, and pathology and radiology results will be automatically uploaded after an inpatient admission.

Outpatient and emergency department pathology and radiology results are not uploaded at this time.

How to Apply

Requests for patient information should be made on clinic letter head and include the following:

Patient details - full name and date of birth;
Requestor details – name and provider number;
Information required, including the dates or date range (if known);
- Discharge summaries
- Operation reports
- Pathology reports
- Imaging reports
- Correspondence
- Medication list
Patient authority/ consent (to identify if an authority/ consent is required see table below)

Please send completed requests via Fax (03) 9871 3357 or email to roi@easternhealth.org.au.

Consent

Consent is required where the treating practitioner is not nominated on the patient’s health record.

Consent from the patient may be written or verbal if the matter is urgent (please contact the ROI service on (03) 9871 3655).

When patient consent/ authority required

Request type	Request requirements	Consent
Nominated GP	On clinic’s letterhead	No
Not Nominated GP	On clinic’s letterhead	Yes
Specialist (referring and non-referring)	On hospital or clinic’s letter head	No
Hospitals/ Rehabilitation Facilities	On hospital letter head	No
Nominated allied health providers	On hospital or clinic’s letter head	No
Not nominated allied health provider	On hospital or clinic’s letter head	Yes

Hours of Operation and Contact Details

Eastern Health ROI Service

Phone: (03) 9871 3655

Email: roi@easternhealth.org.au

Fax: (03) 9871 3357

The Release of Information Service is staffed between 8.30am – 4.00pm Monday to Friday to process urgent and non-urgent requests

Urgent Requests

For urgent requests outside these hours please phone 1300 342 255 and you will be directed to Health Information Services to process your request.

Please have the patient’s name and date of birth ready.

Patient Request for Medical Records for Ongoing Care

Where a patient requires information for a recent admission or attendance to be sent to their treating practitioner for continuity of care, they can contact the Release of Information(ROI) team and ask for a copy to be sent to a practitioner without having to make a formal FOI request.

The patient will need to provide the following:

Full name
Date of birth
Clear description of the information required. For example:
- Which sites or services your request relates too;
- The date of your attendance or admission
- Type of document, for example, discharge summary, pathology result, medication list, etc.
Name of treating practitioner and the address or fax number of the clinic

If you are not clear enough, ROI staff will contact you to clarify the scope of your request, but this may result in processing delays.

Requests should be directed to:

Eastern Health ROI Service

Phone: (03) 9871 3655

Email: roi@easternhealth.org.au

Fax: (03) 9871 3357