Back in the 1980s and 90s, many hospitals published Medical Staff “Rules and Regulations”. And in some cases, that package then went dormant as hospital-wide policies and procedures were introduced. Have a look on your intranet. Do you have Rules and Regulations that are still on the books but have not been updated in awhile?… Read more »

I train Privacy Officers to understand their role. So, what does a Privacy Officer do for a health care organization? In Ontario, every health care organization must have a “contact person” to do the following five tasks: Facilitate compliance with the health privacy law, PHIPA Ensure that everyone who works for the organization is informed… Read more »

A note popped into my inbox this morning from Michael Hyatt, who is an extraordinary business coach.  The topic is “The anatomy of a true apology”. I am working right now with a medical office on a privacy breach and notifying patients.  And we have had some heartfelt discussions about how to convey sincerity in… Read more »

August 1st marks our one-year anniversary. And it has been a good one … By the Numbers 1 new space in downtown Toronto that I can walk to from home 2 new team members: Melissa Martin, Office Magician and Alec Myers, Head of Scrutiny (and all things expanding the business) 5 areas of focus: privacy, physician… Read more »

The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has just released two new correction request decisions – 46 and 47 (dated June 2017 but released the last week of July).  Decision 45 has not yet been released. Bottom Line: These decisions do not change your practice. So long as you respond to correction requests (as you… Read more »

When asked what I do, I say “I’m a health lawyer”.  Which always gets a head tilt response: What’s that? Q: Does that mean you sue doctors? A: Nope Q: Oh, so you sue hospitals? A: Nope Then they say – Ok. I don’t get it. I explain … I work for hospitals and doctors’ offices and… Read more »

Mandatory reporting by health information custodians in Ontario to the IPC will now come into effect October 1, 2017 The new regulations requiring the mandatory reporting of privacy breaches to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario will come into effect October 1st (not July 1st as we originally expected). The link to the new… Read more »

The pressure to “innovate” is everywhere. Even though the practice of law is not exactly renowned for being cutting edge, as lawyers we aspire to create new ways of practice that improve the outcomes for our clients, increase our revenues, free us up for fun, add sex-appeal to our party introduction “I’m a lawyer”, and generally… Read more »

I recently surveyed administrative and clinical team members at a family health team and discovered the top 5 issues that lead patients or families to complain where the conversation can get heated: Being told they cannot receive test results over the phone for a family member without the patient’s consent Long wait times Not being able to receive… Read more »

Family health teams are interesting creations.  What are they?  Multi-disciplinary teams providing primary care services to communities across Ontario. A new theme for family health teams is moving from physician-led boards to community or mixed governance and skills-based boards. One of the driving reasons for this change is to deal with potential conflicts of interest… Read more »