Protecting Your Privacy

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.

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.

• When you provide us with your personal health information we assume that you understand that the information will be used and/or disclosed to others involved in your health care
• If you do not wish your personal health information to be used or shared, you have the right to refuse to provide all or part of the information to us at the time we request the information or anytime afterwards.
• We may not be able to fulfill your wishes if they impact our ability to deliver quality health care to you or if we are legislated to use or disclose the information to which you object. In these cases we will discuss the impact of your objection with you.
• If we find it necessary to disclose your information for purposes other than providing health care, we will notify you of the purpose for the disclosure and ask you for consent to disclose the information.
• The way we collect your consent may vary depending on the purpose for the consent.

We will use your personal health information to:

• Plan and enhance our services to you, including:
  • Evaluation and monitoring of our programs
  • Chart reviews
  • Monitoring or preventing fraud or any unauthorized receipt of services or benefits
  • Educating our agents to provide health care
  • Contacting you to gather information on your satisfaction with or concerns about your visit. This will help us to continuously improve our services to you
• Contact you for donations. Our hospital foundation will always provide you with an opportunity to decline further contact.

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.

Osler uses ‘privacy by design’ principles to build privacy and security safeguards into our programs, services and technology. These principles are also included in our development of and use of technology which has AI capabilities.

AI is a tool that helps analyze large volumes of data, including personal health information, to help identify and plan hospital capacity, improve quality of care by supporting our clinicians in their decision-making as well as automate various administrative tasks that improves efficiency. AI is only used to support decision-making and no clinical decision is made without the review by an Osler clinician.

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 people-centred care. The information below highlights the systems that Osler is currently a member of:

• Child Health Network (eCHN)
• ConnectingOntario
• Diagnostic Image Repository Services (DiR)
• MyChart™
• Ontario Laboratories Information System (OLIS)
• Ontario Clinical Imaging Network (OCINet)
• PocketHealth

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.

You may direct any inquiries about our privacy practices, or concerns with respect to our compliance with our privacy practices, to our Freedom of Information and Privacy office at 905-494-2120 ext. 29466 or contact us through our online form. If you have a received a patient experience survey and do not wish to receive these communications, please contact the Patient Experience Office at surveys@williamoslerhs.ca with your unsubscribe request.

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
2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M4W1A8
416-326-3333