The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario just released new guidelines “Avoiding Abandoned Health Records: Guidance for Health Information Custodians Changing Practice“.

The guidelines cover:

• Who is the custodian when there is a change of practice?
• What obligations do custodians have when changing practice?
• Avoiding abandoned records
• What to do if you discover abandoned records

These new guidelines are an important read for any health practice that has:

• Retirements (especially physicians, nurse practitioners, midwives, dentists or other regulated health practitioners who are themselves health information custodians)
• Locums
• Relocation or moving on the horizon