Privacy

Notice to Patients

St. Francis Memorial Hospital collects, uses, shares and keeps personal health information consistent with our legal obligations:

- To provide you with care
- To monitor and evaluate the quality of care we provide you
- To manage the operations of the hospital
- To educate and collect statistics
- To comply with legal and regulatory requirements
- To maintain shared provincial electronic health record programs

As well, we disclose your contact information to the St. Francis Valley Healthcare Foundation, so that
they may conduct fundraising to improve our health‐care facilities, services and programs.

Access and corrections to your personal health information

St. Francis Memorial Hospital uses an electronic health record. Other health‐care providers outside of St. Francis Memorial Hospital may access your electronic health record, but they or their team must be involved in your care and sign an agreement with our Hospital.

St. Francis Memorial Hospital and its health‐care partners use the EPIC digital health network to collect and share your personal health information with other partners. This helps ensure that you get the best care possible, no matter where you get your care within our partner network. We share the information safely, using privacy and security controls to help keep your personal health information safe, meet health‐care best practices and ensure your care is a top priority.

Health-care providers who have access to your Personal Health Information include:
    - Health‐care organization members of the Atlas Alliance
    - Billing agents, and
    - Community health‐care partners
Your personal information is shared with:

    - The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long‐Term Care
    - Health Canada
    - Renfrew County Public Health
    - Canadian Institute for Health Information
    - Cancer Care Ontario, and
    - As required by law

To access your health record:
    - Log in to MyChart, EPIC’s patient portal, or
    - Contact the Health Records Department within the Hospital

To request a correction to your health record:
    - Talk to your health‐care provider at your next visit, or
    - Contact the Health Records Department within the Hospital
      7 St. Francis Memorial Drive, Box 129, Barry’s Bay, ON K0J 1B0
      P 613-756-3044, F 613-756-0106, www.sfmhosp.com Ext 242 or 277

Safeguards

The information and privacy Office at St. Francis Memorial Hospital takes steps to protect your personal health information from theft, loss and unauthorized access, copying, modification, use, disclosure and disposal. We conduct audits and complete investigation to monitor and manage privacy compliance at
St. Francis Memorial Hospital. 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 for which you have consented.

The EPIC digital health network is an American‐based software, but patient information is not sent to the United States. The personal health information that is collected remains in Canada.

Consent

In addition to the steps St. Francis Memorial Hospital takes to protect your privacy, you also have the right to withdraw access to your personal health information in EPIC and/or provincial electronic health record programs. You can do so by placing a consent directive or lockbox on part or all of your personal
health information.

Please discuss with a member of your health team the risk and benefits of placing a consent directive on your health record. A consent directive may be overridden with your expressed consent, or in other circumstances permitted by law.

Privacy Level Code

We use different privacy level codes to restrict or minimize who knows you are at the hospital. Unless you tell us differently, we may let visitors or callers know where you are in the hospital and your general health status. If you do not want anyone to know that you are in hospital, you, or your substitute decision‐maker on your behalf, may request that a Privacy Leve Code be placed in our patient
registration system.

Contact Information

For more information about our privacy practices see our patient brochure or contact:

Manager of Health Information/Chief Privacy Officer
Phone: 613‐756‐3044 ext 242
Fax: 613‐756‐0106
E‐mail: stewartk@sfmhosp.com

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400
Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8
416‐326‐3333 or 1‐800‐387‐0073