Category: Risk

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 »

The Forward Email function should be used very carefully. Here’s why … As a lawyer, I get forwarded a lot of emails by my clients.  In those emails there are often long threads of internal email conversations within the team where they realize there is a legal question and I get retained to advise on an… Read more »

By Maria McDonald, McDonald HR Law You ask your lawyer to draft your health organization’s employment contract or termination release language because you want it done right. You want to limit your exposure for termination pay in an employment contract You want to ensure the termination release prevents the employee from raising any more legal… Read more »

By Steven Stechley, McGill Global Health Scholar You know what kindness is… but what is lateral kindness? Lateral kindness is a term originating from the west coast that refers to non-hierarchical kindness within Indigenous communities. It is a concept that draws on Indigenous values which promote and celebrate positive things that take place within the… Read more »

Ok. I wasn’t really undercover.  But I was a patient. I spent five days in hospital last week for a surgical procedure. I’m sore and hobbling around now.   While I was in hospital – I learned a lot about being a patient. In my normal day to day life, I give legal advice to health care organizations. I write… Read more »