Stay with me folks – it’s going to get bumpy. There are some important nuances to understand my headline and this case. Here’s the new health privacy decision of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario #83. This case echoes questions I am asked every week in my practice. It is important reading for any… 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 »
In April 2018, Canadians came together from coast to coast to coast to grieve and support each other when we learned a bus was hit in Saskatchewan tragically killing 16 young hockey players and seriously injuring many of their teammates. The Humboldt Broncos story made international news and reminded us all of the fragility of… Read more »
In health privacy decision 81 of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, a hospital was asked to make a correction to a discharge summary. The complainant wanted certain words written into the discharge summary “I am going home into the care of my parents’ because I live in [their] house” to reflect what he… Read more »
In decision 80 of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, the wife of a deceased patient was concerned that a hospital doctor wrongly shared her husband’s health information by speaking to a third party about the care he received and that the hospital failed to meet its privacy obligations. These concerns were raised with… Read more »
Many health care organizations like hospitals, long term care homes, primary care practices, laboratories and pharmacies have video surveillance systems. What happens when someone asks for access to recordings? It depends. Here’s a new story about what might happen. In the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario’s recent decision 78, an individual asked a hospital… Read more »
There are two recent health privacy decisions of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario that have similar facts and similar outcomes. The main message: A doctor (or any other health information custodian) should never ignore a patient’s access request for records. If you do, the IPC won’t be happy. We want a happy IPC…. Read more »
In the last few years, the public has heard A LOT of scary things about electronic privacy scandals. In 2017, Equifax admitted their electronic records were compromised leaving millions of users’ financial information exposed. In May 2017, the WannaCry Ransomware attack negatively impacted 19,000 healthcare appointments across the United Kingdom which response cost the NHS over… Read more »
Tis the season for reflection of the year that’s been and anticipation of the year to come. How will you define success for 2019? That was the question posed to a group of over 100 lawyers at a course I launched with the Law Society of Ontario in December. The responses were personal and varied: Attend yoga… Read more »
Toot toot! I’m about to blow my own horn here. I am thrilled to announce that I have been honoured with a Clawbie again this year. Blank stare. You don’t know what a Clawbie is, do you? A Clawbie is a Canadian legal blog award. It’s a big deal in the legal community and I’m… Read more »