Faxing prescriptions and medical records in Ontario, BC and Alberta

Short answer: in all three provinces, a prescription faxed straight from the prescriber's office to the pharmacy is a normal practice under conditions set by pharmacy regulators. A prescription a patient faxes in is generally not treated as valid. Health records can be faxed, but Ontario's PHIPA, Alberta's HIA and BC's privacy laws all expect reasonable safeguards against misdirected pages.

FaxTelecom sends faxes from a web browser to landlines in seven countries, Canada included. It does not receive faxes and does not issue numbers. This article is general information. It is not legal advice and does not replace guidance from your regulatory college or your province's privacy commissioner.

Why is fax still so common in Canadian health care?

Health care in Canada is run province by province, and inside each province by thousands of independent clinics, pharmacies, labs and health authorities using different electronic record systems. Electronic referral and secure messaging programs keep growing, yet a family practice in Brampton, a pharmacy in Kelowna and a physiotherapy clinic in Red Deer can all reach each other by fax without signing up to anything. That universality explains why fax remains everyday equipment in many clinics, even as provinces encourage alternatives.

Which privacy law applies in each province?

The laws differ by province and by type of organization. This summary is simplified: the acts themselves, and the commissioners' guidance, are the reference.

Alberta also has a PIPA, but for doctors, pharmacists and other custodians it is generally the HIA that governs health information. In every case, the core idea is the same: take reasonable steps so that information reaches only the person it is meant for. Ontario's commissioner, in particular, has repeatedly pointed to misdirected faxes as a frequent cause of privacy breaches.

Can a prescription be faxed to a pharmacy?

From the prescriber's office, yes, generally. Pharmacy regulators in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta accept prescriptions transmitted by fax directly from the prescriber to the pharmacy, with conditions on what the document must show and how the pharmacy verifies it. Controlled substances carry extra federal and provincial requirements, and some medications cannot be dispensed on a faxed prescription at all, depending on current rules.

From a patient, generally no. If you fax a photo of your paper prescription to a pharmacy, it may be used to prepare your order, but the pharmacist will usually need the original or a transmission from the prescriber before dispensing. Ask your pharmacy how it wants to receive it.

How do you request your own medical records?

Patients in all three provinces have a right of access to their health information, with limited exceptions. A written request is the usual starting point, and many clinics accept it by fax, mail, email or through a patient portal.

• Ontario (PHIPA): custodians generally have 30 days to respond, with a possible extension.
• Alberta (HIA): also 30 days as a general rule, with possible extensions.
• British Columbia (PIPA): organizations generally have 30 business days, with possible extensions.

Clinics may charge a reasonable fee for copies. If a request is refused or ignored, the provincial commissioner is the place to complain.

What should you check before faxing health information?

Whether you are a clinic assistant sending a consult note or a patient sending a records request, the same steps cut most of the risk.

1. Confirm the number from a reliable source: the receiving office's letterhead, its official website or a phone call. Never reuse an old number from memory.
2. Send only what is needed: the consult note, not the whole chart.
3. Add a cover page with the recipient's name, the sender's contact details, the page count and a confidentiality notice asking anyone who receives it in error to call and destroy it. Our free fax cover page generator includes these fields.
4. Call ahead for sensitive content so someone is at the machine.
5. Check the confirmation right after sending, and keep it in the file.
6. If a fax goes astray, follow your organization's breach procedure. Under PHIPA and the HIA, notifying the affected people, and in some cases the commissioner, may be required.

Where do you find a clinic's or pharmacy's fax number?

We do not publish them. Use the clinic's or pharmacy's own website, the referral form it sends you, or call the front desk. Provincial college directories show where a regulated professional practises, but they are not always a source of fax numbers, so confirm by phone.

Is an online fax service suitable for health information?

An online service is one more link in the chain, so look at what it does with the file. FaxTelecom encrypts the upload to its servers, uses the document only to send the fax and deletes it automatically afterwards. No advertising is added to your pages. The telephone leg between our platform and the receiving machine is not encrypted, which is true of every fax service and every fax machine. Our fax security guide sets out these limits, and our earlier article on fax in healthcare looks at secure messaging alternatives.

For a clinic, an occasional send from a browser can cover a broken machine or a home office day. For routine flows of patient information, your organization's privacy officer should decide which channel to use.

Quick questions

Can I fax my doctor's note to my employer? You can, but share only what the employer needs. A note confirming an absence does not usually need a diagnosis.

Do pharmacies take faxed refill requests? Many do from prescribers. As a patient, calling or using the pharmacy's app is usually quicker.

Can I send to a Canadian clinic with FaxTelecom? Yes, to any Canadian landline fax number. See our Canada page for the number format, then send from the home page.