 York
Central Hospital’s Commitment to Patients Regarding the Privacy
of Personal Health Information
At York Central Hospital (YCH), we value you as a unique person with a right to be respected and accepted. One way we show this is by respecting your right to the privacy of your personal health information.As our patient, you trust with us with your health information. To honour that trust, we are committed to using it only for identified legitimate purposes, and to protect it from misuse. Legitimate uses and disclosures of your personal health information include the following:
- Treating and caring for you
- Getting payment for your treatment and care (eg. from OHIP, WSIB, your private insurer or others)
- Planning, administering and managing our internal operations
- Conducting risk management & quality improvement activities, such as sending you patient satisfaction surveys
- Teaching
- Compiling statistics
- Fundraising to improve our healthcare services and programs
- Complying with legal and regulatory requirements, and
- Fulfilling other purposes permitted or required by law.
In the interest of efficient and safe delivery of your health care, we assume that you consent for YCH to handle your personal health information for identified legitimate purposes by the fact that you are attending YCH for your care. This is known as “implied consent”. Despite this implied consent, YCH still will make every effort to obtain written consent for the handling of your personal health information when it is required. Here are the specific steps we take to protect your privacy while delivering safe, high-quality care:
- We have created and put into practice policies and procedures to ensure that your personal health information is protected from theft, loss and unauthorized access, copying, modification, use, disclosure and/or disposal. These policies and procedures are designed to safeguard your privacy, and are in keeping with current privacy legislation.
- We conduct audits and complete investigations to monitor and manage our privacy compliance.
- When we collect your personal health information, we collect no more than is needed for legitimate purposes. As much as possible, we collect the information directly from you, and we keep it no longer than we need it or as required by law.
- Everyone who works with patient information at YCH is trained in the appropriate use of your personal health information and knows that it is only available to them for use in your care or for other limited reasons that are permitted or required by law. Any violation of your confidentiality will not be tolerated, with employee penalties up to and including dismissal.
- No matter how your information is stored – on computer, in writing or in some other way – we keep it in a safe and secure way that protects your privacy.
If you have questions….about the privacy of your personal health information, or about any related policies and practices, or if you wish to view your personal health information, please speak with your caregiver or other health professional. Any of these people will be pleased to help you.
If you need further information you are invited to contact our Chief Privacy Officer by phone at (905) 883-1212, ext. 7570 or fax 905-883-2091, by e-mail at privacy@yorkcentral.on.ca or by regular mail at:
Chief Privacy Officer
York Central Hospital
10 Trench Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C 3Z4
To
view the full YCH Privacy Policy Click Here
Updated: 08-2008; 01-2009
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