Confidentiality at Yale Health

Your medical records are strictly confidential, stored in a restricted area and available only to individuals involved in your care and authorized administrative personnel on a need-to-know basis. No one else is authorized to obtain information from your records without your written consent, provided that you are 18 years old or over.

Mental Health records for students (except for those involving inpatient care admissions) are kept in the Mental Health & Counseling Department and filed separately from other medical records. They are available only to appropriate mental health personnel. These records are not released to anyone—including other Yale Health clinicians or administrative personnel—without your permission (Authorization for Release of Mental Health Record).

Information from your medical record and from providers or hospital incidents will not be disclosed without your written consent except for the purposes of providing health care to the patient, administering Yale Health coverage, or as authorized by law

If you are over 18 and wish to give your parents the authorization to speak with your primary care clinician or receive your health information you need to complete and sign the Designation of Patient Spokesperson Form provided by the Health Information Management Department and return it to the Health Information Management Department.

Without receipt of this completed form parents or any other persons will not have access to your health information. But keep in mind that if you have alternate (non-Yale Health) hospitalization coverage, bills or explanations of benefits may be sent to your home address where family members could see them.