How to Request Medical Records from Sutter Health: Online Form, Fax, Portal

One authorization form for the whole Sutter network

Sutter Health does not run a separate records office per hospital for patient requests. Its Request Medical Records page gives three routes for the same Medical Records Authorization form: an online request tool, mail to the Sutter Health System Office at PO Box 619091, Roseville, CA 95661, and fax to (916) 736-5499.

One thing Sutter says on that page is worth reading before you fill anything in: you may receive copies from more than one location depending on when and where you were seen. A long history across Sutter Medical Foundation, a Sutter hospital, and a Sutter affiliate can come back in pieces. Listing the facilities and the date ranges on the form is what keeps that from turning into three separate requests.

Sutter asks for up to 15 calendar days after it receives your written request, and says it will tell you in advance if any fee applies.

Online form, portal or mail: the other ways to request Sutter records

Sutter's Request Medical Records page lists no phone line for records requests. Beside the fax, it gives:

• Online: the Submit Your Authorization Form link opens Sutter's online Medical Record Request, the same authorization without printing anything.
• My Health Online: results, visit notes and messages for your own viewing, with no form.
• Mail: Sutter Health System Office, PO Box 619091, Roseville, CA 95661.

The form comes in English, Spanish and Chinese, and radiology images use their own Radiology Images Authorization. A fax is confirmed delivered in minutes, so the 15 calendar days Sutter asks for are on Sutter's side.

What Sutter patients send by fax

The paperwork that needs a signature is the paperwork that still moves by fax:

• A signed Medical Records Authorization releasing your chart to yourself or to a new provider
• A records request when you are changing systems and your next clinic needs your history
• A radiology images authorization, which Sutter handles on a separate form for the images themselves rather than the report
• Disability, FMLA, or leave paperwork a Sutter physician has completed and signed
• Outside records going the other way, when a non-Sutter provider needs your history added to your Sutter chart

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

Sutter's own form also lets you choose fax as the way you receive the records back, with a 50-page limit on that delivery method. If your history is longer than that, pick one of the other delivery options on the form.

Verify the number before you send

A Sutter authorization form carries your name, date of birth, and often your medical record number. Confirm the destination before it leaves your hands:

• Download the authorization form from sutterhealth.org and read the fax number printed on the page you downloaded it from. That is the version Sutter maintains.
• If a Sutter department wrote to you asking for something specific, use the fax number in that letter. A department number beats a general one when the department is the one expecting your document.
• Skip fax numbers from third-party form sites. Several republish an old copy of Sutter's form.

How to fax Sutter Health without a fax machine

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

A two-page or three-page form sends free within your monthly free pages. Longer packets are covered by a one-time credit pack. See how to send a fax for accepted files and page limits and faxing medical records for the wider process of collecting your own history. If some of your California care was at Kaiser, the Kaiser Permanente guide covers its routing by region.