Privacy Policy and Legal

Our Legal Responsibility

As one of your care providers, we are legally required to protect the privacy of your personal health information. We collect personal health information about you directly from you or from the person acting on your behalf. The personal health information that we collect may include, for example, your name, date of birth, address, health history, record of your visits and the support you received during those visits.

We also may collect personal health information about you from other sources if we have obtained your consent to do so or if the law permits us to do so. We make sure that only those people who need to see your personal records are allowed to look at them. We protect your information through our administrative policies and by adopting appropriate safeguards and security measures.

Your Personal Health Information (PHI) includes data that identifies you and reports about the care and services you receive at the OakMed Family Health Team. Your record at the OakMed Family Health Team office is the property of the Family Health Team (FHT) and your physician. The information in your file belongs to you and you may request to view your record at any time. If you wish to obtain a copy of your file, the administrative costs associated with this will need to be paid by you.

This notice applies to personal health information in all forms – verbal, written and electronic. It includes all information created by your physician, his/her staff, the FHT staff, consulting professionals working with the FHT, students and volunteers. As a provider of health care services, the OakMed Family Health Team is committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality and security of all personal health information, regardless of whether it is in verbal, written or electronic form.

Use of Personal Health Information

OakMed FHT collects, uses and discloses Personal Health Information to:

• Communicate with your various health care providers including your family physician and/other community agencies/institutions for continuity of care, in order to treat/support and care for you (unless you tell us otherwise);
• Provide disclosure to family, friends, others – we may provide your PHI to a family member, friend, or other person you tell us is involved in your care, unless you object in whole or part;
• Support Law enforcement – we may disclose PHI to government agencies and law enforcement personnel when the law requires it; for example, victims of abuse, neglect or when ordered to do so in judicial or administrative proceedings.
• Support public health activities – we report information about various diseases to government offices in charge of collecting this information. We provide coroners, medical examiners with information about an individual’s death;
• Plan, administer, and manage internal operations, and conduct risk-management activities;
• Compile statistics (e.g., provincial/federal ministries require demographics, information about services provided you, how long you are waiting for these services, etc.) This anonymous information is being collected for the purpose of program development and system-level decision-making;
• Comply with legal and regulatory requirements;
• Fulfill other purposes permitted or required by law.

Important Information

• The OakMed Family Health Team takes steps to protect your personal health information from theft, loss and unauthorized access, copying, modification, use, disclosure and disposal.
• We conduct checks to monitor and manage our privacy compliance and staff receives privacy training.
• We take steps to ensure that everyone who performs services for us protects your privacy and only uses your personal health information for the purposes you have consented to.
• All staff, students, volunteers, and consultants working with the FHT are required to sign a confidentiality agreement.
• The OakMed FHT reserves the right to change the terms of this notice and our privacy policy. When we make an important change to our policy, we will post the new notice.

If you have any questions, please contact us via telephone at (905) 901 5111 or via email at info@oakmed.ca