Category: Risk

Just when you thought it was safe … a new class action was recently certified after a health privacy breach at a hospital in Ontario. Here’s what every health Privacy Officer needs to know. Stewart v. Demme and William Osler Health System (2020) “The central question … is whether a privacy violation can be “highly… Read more »

Client: I have a quick question for you. … Can I do <enter question that seems perfectly straightforward to client>? Lawyer:  hmmmmm.  It depends. Client: Grrrrrrrr.  Why can you never just tell me yes or no?! We all know this dance.  Clients ask questions. Lawyers give equivocal answers. Why does this happen? Honestly, we the… Read more »

Listening to the acoustic version of A-Ha’s “Take on me” I heard the line: “Say after me … it’s no better to be safe than sorry”. I’m a lawyer. I have probably said “it’s better to be safe than sorry” or “on the safe side” a million times. But when I heard that line in… Read more »

I recently witnessed a dispute within my faith community. One congregant was accused of violent and highly inappropriate activity. The synagogue struggled to respond. Things escalated. People took sides. Positions became entrenched. There was a mixture of genuine concern, mythology, innuendo, hyperbole, valid issues to be addressed and unsubstantiated issues that needed to be cleared… Read more »

Trust. Trust is the foundation of healthcare. Without trust, patients delay receiving care. Without trust, patients do not share the truth that helps clinicians uncover what is actually happening. Where trust is compromised, patients, their families and caregivers feel vulnerable and unsafe. They go elsewhere or nowhere to seek help. I’ve been studying “trust” in… Read more »

We know this intuitively – but it bears repeating. Health care organizations should be very careful when speaking with the media about specific patient cases. There is a new Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) health privacy decision directly on this topic. Decision 82 Background: A patient of a hospital died. The family members… Read more »

We have a new government in Ontario after 15 years of the same party in power.  You know what that means? Change. Hold on to your seats folks – we are going to see legislative changes in healthcare in Ontario. Any time of change can be tough.  But a time of change is upon us… Read more »

There is a new resource that every healthcare organization in Ontario (and beyond) should know about. 21 Questions: Guidance for healthcare boards on what they should ask senior leaders about risk. I attended the Association for Family Health Teams of Ontario annual conference and one of the sessions featured presenters from HIROC who introduced this… Read more »

  Health law is a discipline that focuses on the legal issues in health care, on representing the interests of recipients of health services or health care providers or the health sector and its businesses and goods and service providers, or government and its policy makers. What I love about health law is that the… Read more »

I am often asked by health leaders what to do when police arrive and need information about patients. Police officers and police departments are important community partners for health care organizations. As citizens, we all rely on the police to protect us and enforce the laws.  It is vital to the success of all health… Read more »