As a Health Information Custodian (HIC) under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) and other applicable provincial legislations, Osler takes great care to protect the privacy, confidentiality and security of your personal health information.
Learn everything you need to know about accessing your own personal health information/medical records, from Osler's Health Information Management (HIM) office.
Statement of Information Practices
Our Statement of Information Practices describes Osler's accountability and openness, how we use the personal health information that we collect from you, how we protect your information, and the purposes and conditions under which we may share it. We value the trust you have placed in us and we are committed to ensuring that your information remains confidential and secure.
| Accountability and openness |
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Osler is accountable in protecting the privacy of personal health information in our custody or under our control. We also keep a strong focus on performance excellence by ensuring that we monitor how we are doing. We use these results to continuously improve the way in which we protect your right to privacy. At Osler we are open about how we protect the privacy of your personal health information. We have assigned a contact person to address your privacy-related inquiries or privacy investigations, complaints and your requests for access to your personal health information records. |
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Notice and collection |
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We have posted notices at key areas in our hospital. The notices explain why we collect, use and disclose your personal health information and tell you where to get more detailed information. Osler collects personal health information for the purpose of providing you with appropriate health care. If you are unable to provide us with the information we need to treat you, we may collect the information from other health care professionals who are or who have been involved in your treatment or someone who has been designated as your substitute decision-maker. We will also collect personal health information about you from someone other than yourself if you provide us with consent to do so or if we are authorized to do so by legislation. We will only collect the information we need to treat you. |
| Consent |
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| Use and safeguards |
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We will use your personal health information to:
Our staff, physicians and volunteers are required to abide by our privacy policy and sign an agreement to that effect. We use up-to-date technology standards to secure your information, and we monitor internal compliance with our information and privacy practices. In some cases we may share your personal health information with third party data processors, vendors, suppliers or providers responsible for administering our programs. These organizations must sign a contract with us to follow privacy and health information practices that are the same or similar to our own. |
| Disclosure |
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Osler is a member of shared health information systems. These shared systems permit health care providers with the ability to securely access and use electronic patient health information. This access ensures the delivery of more timely, and patient-centered care. The information below highlights the systems that Osler is currently a member of: |
| Accuracy, individual access and correction |
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We strive to keep your personal health information as accurate, complete and up-to-date as possible, taking into account its uses and your interests. We establish and maintain a record of your personal health information. You have the right to access your health record by submitting a written request to our HIM department. For access to your own personal health information/medical record contact Osler's HIM office. We must provide you with access to your file within 30 days of your request. If your request requires us to conduct a lengthy search, we may request an extension for another 30 days. You may request corrections to the information in your file by providing us with additional information that supports your request. If your file contains information that was not provided by our hospital, we may not have the knowledge to correct that particular information and you may need to go back to the source to request the correction. |
| Inquiries and challenging compliance |
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You may direct any inquiries about our privacy practices, or complaints with respect to our compliance with our privacy practices, to our Privacy office at 905-494-2120 ext. 29466 or PrivacyOffice@williamoslerhs.ca. You can also submit a complaint online by completing our patient and visitor privacy complaint form. You may direct any inquiries or requests for your own personal health information record/health chart, to Osler's HIM Office. If you are unable to resolve your complaint by working with our Privacy office you may contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) at: Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario |
