Our Commitment to Patients
At St. Francis Memorial Hospital (SFMH) we respect your right to the privacy of your personal health information.
As our patient, you (or a person legally acting on your behalf) entrust us with your information about yourself. To honour that trust, we use and disclose this information for identified purposes and we protect it from misuse.
Policies and procedures have been developed and are enforced to protect your personal health information from theft, loss and unauthorized access, copying, modification, use, disclosure and disposal. No matter how your information is stored—on computer, in writing, or some other way—we keep it in a safe and secure way that protects your privacy.
We conduct investigations to monitor and manage our privacy compliance.
We take steps to ensure that everyone who performs services for us protect your privacy and only use your personal health information for the purposes you have consented to.
Collection of Personal Health Information
The personal health information that we collect may include, for example, your name, date of birth, address, health history, records of your visits to SFMH and the care that you received during those visits. Occasionally, we collect personal health information about you from other sources if we have obtained your consent to do so, or if the law permits (for example, to reduce a significant risk of harm to other persons).
At St. Francis Memorial Hospital, we rely upon implied consent to collect, use and disclose personal health information to provide health care to our patients for the identified purposes unless we become aware that the patient has expressly withheld or withdrawn consent. Express consent is required for the collection, use and disclosure of personal health information for purposes, other than those listed.
Subject to certain limitations, you may withhold or withdraw your consent for some of our identified uses and disclosures.
For example, you can “opt out” of sharing your name & address with our Hospital’s Foundation, or having copies of results & records sent to your local family doctor by letting the Registration Clerk know your wishes.
Please be aware that, when asked, visitors and callers will be advised of an individual’s presence in the hospital, unless the individual “opts out.”
Uses and Disclosures of Personal Health Information
We use and disclose your personal health information to:
