For Our Patients

Statement of Information Practices

Our Statement of Information practices describes how we use the personal health information we collect from you, how we protect your information, and the purposes and conditions under which we may share it. We value the trust you have placed in us and are committed to ensuring your information remains confidential and secure.

1. Accountability and Openness

We are accountable to protect the privacy of personal health information in our custody or under our control. We also keep a strong focus on performance excellence by ensuring we monitor how we are doing. We use these results to continuously improve the way in which we protect your right to privacy.

At Trillium we are open about how we protect the privacy of your personal health information. We have assigned a contact person to address your privacy-related inquiries or complaints, and your requests for access to your personal health information records. The contact person may be reached at (905) 848-7580, ext. 3435.

2. Collection

We collect personal health information primarily from you, for the purpose of providing you with appropriate health care. If you are unable to provide us with the information we need to treat you, we may collect the information from other health care professionals who are or who have been involved in your treatment, or someone who has been designated as your substitute decision-maker.

We will also collect personal health information about you from someone other than yourself if you provide us with consent to do so, or if we are authorized to do so by legislation.

We will only collect the information we need to treat you. We promise to comply with the regulations and legal requirements governing health information and privacy.

3. Use

We will use your personal health information to:

• Plan and enhance our services to you, including:
• Evaluation and monitoring of our programs
• Chart reviews
• Monitoring or preventing fraud or any unauthorized receipt of services or benefits
• Educating our agents to provide health care
• Contacting you to gather information on your satisfaction with or concerns about your visit. This will help us to continuously improve our services to you
• Contact you for donations. Our hospital foundation will always provide you with an opportunity to decline further contact.

4. Disclosure

• Your personal health information will be shared with other health care professionals involved in your treatment.
• In cases where you are unable to provide consent, we may discuss some parts of your personal health information with your substitute decision maker to obtain their consent for ongoing treatment.
• We will disclose personal health information where we are legislated to do so or where a court order or warrant is provided to us.
• We will disclose your general status and location as a patient to individuals enquiring about you, unless you tell us not to.
• With your consent, we will also disclose your personal health information to researchers as long as our hospital has approved the research proposal and the researcher has entered into a confidentiality agreement with us
• We will disclose your information for the purposes of processing insurance claims.
• If you indicate that you would like spiritual care while in the hospital, we will share your name, religious affiliation and location with our spiritual advisors.

5. Consent

When you provide us with your personal health information we believe you understand that the information will be used and shared with others involved in your care.

If you do not wish your personal health information to be used or shared, you have the right to refuse to provide all or part of the information to us at the time we request the information or anytime afterwards. We may not be able to fulfil your wishes if they impact our ability to deliver quality health care to you, or if we are legislated to use or disclose the information you are objecting to. In these cases we will discuss the impact of your objection with you.

If we find it necessary to disclose your information for purposes other than providing health care, we will notify you of the purpose for the disclosure and ask you for consent to disclose the information. The way we collect your consent may vary depending on the purpose for the consent.

6. Notice

We have posted notices at key areas in our hospital. The notices explain why we collect, use and disclose your personal health information and tell you where to get more detailed information.

7. Accuracy

We strive to keep your personal health information as accurate, complete and up to date as possible, taking into account its uses and your interests.

8. Safeguards

We maintain a high level of security with respect to the confidentiality of your personal health information. Our staff, physicians and volunteers are required to abide by our privacy policy and sign an agreement to that effect. We use up-to-date technology standards to secure your information, and we monitor internal compliance with our information practices. In some cases, we may share your personal health information with third party data processors, vendors, suppliers or providers responsible for administering our programs. These organizations must sign a contract with us to follow privacy and health information practices that are the same or similar to our own.

9. Individual Access and Correction

We establish and maintain a record of your personal health information. You have the right to access your health record by submitting a written request to our Health Records Department at (905) 848-7580 ext. 3435. We must provide you with access to your file within 30 days of your request. If your request requires us to conduct a lengthy search, we may request an extension for another 30 days.

You may request corrections to the information in your file by providing us with additional information that supports your request. If your file contains information that was not provided by our hospital, we may not have the knowledge to correct that particular information and you may need to go back to the source request the correction.

10. Inquiries and Challenging Compliance

You may direct any inquiries about our information practices, or complaints with respect to our compliance with our information practices, to our Health Records Department at (905) 848-7580, ext. 3435.   If you are unable to resolve your complaint by working with Health Records, you may contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner at:

Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario
2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8

(416) 326-3333