Accessing My Health Record

Viewing a My Health Record

Under the My Health Records Act 2012, registered healthcare provider organisations are authorised to view information in a patient’s My Health Record for the purpose of providing healthcare, subject to any access controls the patient may have set.

Viewing a patient’s My Health Record is performed through an icon or link located in your local ED software or via the My Health Record Provider Portal in accordance with your local hospital or State or Territory digital health policy.

Record Access Codes

May be in use on some records, meaning you will need to request the pass code from your patient to view information contained within their record. Once opened for the first time, you will have access to their record for 3 years, unless revoked by the patient.

Emergency Record Access

In instances where access codes are in effect and consent cannot be provided, you may have to use the Emergency Record Access function (sometimes referred to as the ‘Breakglass’ feature).

Be aware that significant penalties apply for misuse of this feature – every use of ‘Breakglass’ is audited. Federal Legislation (outlined in the My Health Records Act 2012) governs the Emergency Record Access feature and unauthorised access carries heavy penalties.

Emergency Record Access is available to clinicians for 5 days from the initial time of access.

You must only use the ‘Breakglass’ feature to EITHER: 

Lessen or prevent: a serious threat to an individual’s health, life or safety and it is unreasonable or impracticable to obtain the healthcare recipient’s consent; 

OR

Lessen or prevent: a serious threat to public health and safety.

Uploading to a My Health Record

Under the My Health Records Act 2012, registered healthcare provider organisations are authorised to upload information to a patient’s My Health Record subject to two conditions – that there is no instruction from the patient not to upload the information and that consent has been obtained where required by a state a territory law.

Remember that if a patient requests that information not be uploaded to their My Health Record, you must comply. You should also be familiar with local policies in your hospital that outline how to prevent a document from being uploaded and remove a document that your hospital has uploaded.

State and Territory My Health Record resources

Please select your State or Territory for local resources and information: