How to Request Medical Records from OHSU: Fax, Email, Portal

One Release of Information team, one number

OHSU does not split records requests by hospital or clinic. Its Medical Records page gives one form and three ways to return it: email to HIMReception@ohsu.edu, fax to the Release of Information Team at (503) 494-6970, or mail to Health Information Management, Mail Code OP17a, 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Rd., Portland, OR 97239.

The form comes in English and Spanish. If you ask when you submit the request, OHSU provides the record in an accessible format such as braille at no extra fee. That is unusual enough to be worth knowing about, and it has to be asked for up front rather than after the copy is produced.

Phone, portal or form: the other ways to request OHSU records

The fax line takes the signed form. The other routes on OHSU's Medical Records page:

• Online: OHSU says you may request your records through the MyChart Sharing Hub, with nothing to print.
• Questions and current copy pricing: call medical correspondence in Health Information Services at (503) 494-8556.
• Radiology films or CDs: a separate request by phone to (503) 494-8631, not the records fax.
• The form itself comes in English and Spanish, with release forms in several other languages.

OHSU asks you to allow 7-10 business days for your request to be received. A fax is confirmed delivered in minutes, so that wait is on OHSU's side.

What OHSU patients send by fax

The requests that need a signature and a destination:

• A signed request for your own medical records, or a release directing them to a new provider
• A records request when you are transferring care out of OHSU
• A request for records to support a second opinion, which OHSU's specialty programs receive often
• Disability, FMLA, or leave paperwork an OHSU physician has completed and signed
• Outside records going the other way, so an OHSU clinic has your prior history before a first appointment

A signed request plus a photo ID copy is two to three pages, inside the free monthly allowance on every FaxTerra account.

OHSU asks for time to process, so send the request as soon as you know you need the records rather than the week the new appointment lands.

Verify the number before you send

A records request carries your name, date of birth, and the treatment dates you are asking about.

• Download the request form from ohsu.edu and read the submission section on the page you downloaded it from. That is the version OHSU maintains.
• If an OHSU clinic wrote to you asking for something specific, use the number in that letter instead. A clinic number beats a general one when the clinic is the one expecting your document.
• OHSU's public records request process covers university records rather than health records and is a different route entirely. Do not send a patient records request there.
• Skip fax numbers from third-party form sites. Several host old copies of the OHSU form.

How to fax OHSU without a fax machine

Create a free FaxTerra account with an email address. Upload the signed request as a PDF or as photos taken with your phone, enter the OHSU fax number, and send. Delivery confirmation arrives by email, which is worth keeping since a records request is not acknowledged separately.

See how to send a fax for accepted files and page limits, faxing medical records for the wider process of collecting your history, and the Mayo Clinic guide for another academic medical center that runs one national Release of Information line.