Who Can See the Medical Record in a Private Clinic
Who can see the medical record is answered, in basic terms, by Spain’s Law 41/2002: the centre’s practitioners who diagnose or treat the patient, and the patient themselves, who has the right of access and to obtain a copy. Administrative and management staff may only access the data related to their functions, and anyone who accesses it is bound by a duty of confidentiality.
The practitioners who treat the patient
The starting point is Article 16 of Law 41/2002, the basic law regulating patient autonomy: the medical record is an instrument intended fundamentally to guarantee appropriate care for the patient. That is why the centre’s care professionals who carry out the patient’s diagnosis or treatment have access to their medical record as a fundamental instrument for their appropriate care.
The law adds that each centre shall establish the methods that make it possible at all times for the professionals who attend each patient to access their medical record. Restricting is not enough: whoever attends the patient must be able to consult it when they need it.
Note how it is worded: it speaks of the professionals who carry out the diagnosis or treatment of that patient. Whether in your clinic all practitioners see all records or each sees only those of their own patients is an organisational decision that is best taken with your adviser and put in writing.
Reception and administration: what their functions require
The provision that weighs most in the day-to-day running of a private clinic is this one: “The administrative and management staff of healthcare centres may only access the medical record data related to their own functions”.
In a small clinic, that staff is, for example, reception and whoever handles invoicing. To book appointments, collect payments or prepare a consent form they use contact details, the diary and administrative documents, not progress notes. Which data are related to the functions of each role is for the clinic to decide: the practical thing is to write it down and have the program reflect it.
A typical case is the receptionist who also helps in the consulting room. It is better to decide it for that specific person, with your adviser, than to give the whole front desk full access “just in case”.
The patient and their relatives
The patient has the right of access to the documentation in their medical record and to obtain a copy of the data in it, and centres shall regulate the procedure that guarantees that right. They can also exercise it through a duly accredited representative.
That right has two limits. It cannot be exercised to the detriment of the right of third parties to the confidentiality of data collected in the patient’s therapeutic interest, nor of the right of the professionals who took part in preparing it, who may invoke confidentiality over their subjective notes.
If the patient has died, centres and individually practising doctors will only provide access to persons linked to them for family or de facto reasons, unless the deceased expressly prohibited it and this is proven. Even so, no information is provided that affects the deceased’s privacy or the professionals’ subjective notes, or that harms third parties. How each specific request is handled depends on the case: have the procedure written down and reviewed by your adviser before the first one arrives.
Inspection, judges and research
Article 16 provides for other types of access that have nothing to do with day-to-day care:
| Who or for what | What the law provides |
|---|---|
| Inspection, evaluation, accreditation and planning | Duly accredited health personnel have access to check the quality of care and respect for patients’ rights, among other functions. |
| Judicial, epidemiological, public health, research or teaching purposes | Governed by data protection and health legislation; as a general rule, with identification data kept separate from clinical data to ensure anonymity, unless the patient consents to not separating them. |
| Investigation by the judicial authority | If it is considered essential to join identifying and clinical data, the rulings of the judges and courts apply, and access is strictly limited to the specific purposes of each case. |
| Public health | When necessary to prevent a serious risk or danger to the health of the population, the health authorities may access identifying data for epidemiological reasons or for the protection of public health. Access is carried out by a health professional bound by professional secrecy, or another person with an equivalent obligation of secrecy, following reasons given by the authority making the request. |
If you receive a request of this kind, have your adviser review it before handing anything over.
Duty of confidentiality and a record of access
Seeing the record also means keeping quiet about it. Under Law 41/2002, staff who access the data in the medical record in the exercise of their functions are bound by a duty of confidentiality. The LOPDGDD (Spain’s data protection and digital rights law) adds a duty of confidentiality for everyone involved at any stage of data processing, which remains even after their relationship with the controller or processor has ended. And the GDPR establishes that anyone acting under the authority of the controller who has access to personal data may only process them on the controller’s instructions, unless required to do so by Union or Member State law.
And the record of who has consulted each medical record? Law 41/2002 says that the autonomous communities (Spain’s regions) shall regulate the procedure for keeping a record of access to the medical record and of its use. The detail depends on your region, so ask your adviser what applies to you. What you can ask of any program is that it leaves that trail: who opened which record and when.
How to organise it by role
- One user account per person. No shared password at reception: without their own account there is no way to know who opened a record.
- Permissions by role, in writing. A simple table with what reception sees, what administration sees and what each practitioner sees.
- Named exceptions. If someone needs more access than their role has, make it a decision about that person and not a change for the whole role.
- More restricted specialties. In a centre with psychology, decide whether the rest of the team should see those notes.
- Joiners and leavers up to date. Anyone who leaves the clinic loses access that same day.
- Review of the trail. Look from time to time at who has consulted what; it serves more to prevent than to punish.
If you are still choosing software, these questions fit with the ones we suggest in what clinic management software should have.
How Mi Clínica handles it
In Mi Clínica each team member logs in with their own user account and sees what their role calls for. These are the default permissions:
| Role | What they do | Medical record |
|---|---|---|
| “Dirección” | Can do everything | Yes, except psychology content if they are not registered in the team as a psychology practitioner |
| “Administración” | Manages and invoices | Does not see clinical content |
| “Recepción” | Diary, patients, payments and administrative documents | Does not see clinical content |
| “Profesional sanitario” (Healthcare professional) | Their own diary and clinical side; does not invoice or manage | Yes, with clinical access by default; psychology only if they are registered as a psychology practitioner |
- Psychology, restricted. Psychology progress notes can only be read by those registered in the team as psychology practitioners. Anyone without access to a piece of content sees that a progress note exists, with its date and specialty, but not what it says.
- Progress notes, kept apart. By default, “Recepción” and “Administración” cannot read the content of progress notes.
- Photos and reports, the same. Clinical photographs require clinical access, and clinical reports can only be seen by those who have it; administrative documents, such as consent forms, are seen by the rest of the team. One caveat: the reports, documents and photos in the patient’s record do not carry a specialty, so a psychology report or photo can be opened by any practitioner with clinical access.
- One exception in plain view. Allergies in the general medical record also appear as a warning in the header of the patient’s record, which the whole team sees.
- Adjustable permissions, with limits. “Dirección” can adjust the permissions matrix for each role, but clinical access is only granted by role to healthcare staff; to a specific person in another role it can be given individually, as a decision about a named individual. Each person’s clinical permissions, access to the medical record and prescriptions, can only be granted or removed by “Dirección”, and nobody changes their own. The remaining individual permissions are changed by whoever has the management permission, which “Dirección” and “Administración” have by default, except those of a person in “Dirección”, which only “Dirección” can change. A practitioner can also be limited to their own patients: those who have an appointment or progress note with them or whom they registered themselves. Permission changes are logged.
- Trail of consultations. Who consults the medical record is logged, with user account, date and time. If the person opening the record has no clinical access, it is logged that they opened the patient’s record, not that they consulted the medical record. Consultations of documents and photos and the download of a photo are also noted, and anyone with clinical access sees this in the “Actividad” (Activity) tab of the record.
- Each clinic, isolated. No clinic can see another’s data.
What the program does not do is decide for you what each role needs, or certify that your clinic complies with any rule: it applies the permissions the clinic decides and leaves the trail. How the medical record itself is stored we explain in electronic medical records, and the team’s roles in who Mi Clínica is for (in Spanish).
Sources consulted
Checked on 12 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.
- Ley 41/2002, básica reguladora de la autonomía del paciente y de derechos y obligaciones en materia de información y documentación clínica (texto consolidado). BOE.
- Ley Orgánica 3/2018, de Protección de Datos Personales y garantía de los derechos digitales (texto consolidado). BOE.
- Reglamento (UE) 2016/679, Reglamento general de protección de datos. BOE (DOUE).
Frequently asked questions
Can the receptionist see a patient’s medical record?
Law 41/2002 limits administrative and management staff to the medical record data related to their own functions. Booking appointments or collecting payments does not require reading clinical notes; what each role needs is for the clinic to decide, ideally with its adviser.
Can a practitioner consult the record of a patient they do not treat?
The law gives access to the centre’s care professionals who carry out the patient’s diagnosis or treatment. Whether each practitioner sees all records or only those of their own patients is an organisational decision; in Mi Clínica a practitioner can be limited to their own patients.
Does the patient have the right to a copy of their medical record?
Yes. They have the right of access to the documentation in their record and to obtain a copy of the data, also through an accredited representative. With two limits: the confidentiality of third parties and the reserve that practitioners may invoke over their subjective notes.
Do you have to keep a record of who consults each medical record?
Law 41/2002 entrusts the autonomous communities (Spain’s regions) with regulating the procedure for keeping a record of access to the medical record and of its use, so the detail depends on your region. In Mi Clínica, who consults the record is logged, with user account, date and time.
Can the “Dirección” (Management) role see the psychology record in Mi Clínica?
Psychology progress notes, only if they are registered in the team as a psychology practitioner; everyone else sees that a progress note exists, with its date and specialty, but not its content. The reports, documents and photos in the patient’s record do not carry a specialty: any practitioner with clinical access opens them, “Dirección” included.