Privacy
Health Information
Euclid Telehealth respects the privacy rights of our patients and is committed to protecting the health information that we collect from you. We have developed our privacy practices based on the Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) and Alberta Health Information Act (HIA) requirements. This legislation applies to health information we collected, used and disclosed to provide our patients with health services, before and after the PHIPA and HIA came into effect. While patient consent can be granted in an informal way, such as providing us with an individual insurance card to document your insurance provider, in some situations we must have formal consent to collect, use, and disclose your personal information.
Right of Access
Subject to limited and specific exceptions in the PHIPA or HIA, individuals have a right of access to information about themselves that is in the custody or control of the clinic, and the right to request corrections or amendments to this information. An individual also has the right of access to any information in an applicable provincial Electronic Health Record that pertains to them and may request this from any participating custodian with whom they have a current care relationship. The existence of a current care relationship will be jointly determined by the participating custodian and the individual.
In many cases there may be a fee which would cover the time required to find the information you’ve requested, the cost of copying the information onto a disk, and postage if applicable. To request access to your health information, please contact Euclid Telehealth’s Privacy Officer.
Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Health Information
The clinic will not collect, use or disclose individually identifying health information if aggregate or other non-identifying health information is adequate for the intended purpose.
When collecting, using or disclosing health information, the clinic will only collect, use or disclose the amount of health information that is essential to enable the clinic, or the recipient of the information, to carry out the intended purpose.
Before using or disclosing health information the clinic will make a reasonable effort to ensure that the information is accurate and complete.
Euclid Telehealth will not share your personal health information with your family members, friends, or employer unless you ask us to do so. If you would like us to include family members in communications about your health, then you must let us know. You may ask your provider to add this as a special note in your medical record so everyone on the team will know that we can share your health information with that person anytime until you withdraw the request.
For those who are unable to make their own healthcare decisions, a substitute decision maker may be appointed. For children, this is most often their parent or parents. Once an adolescent is able to make their own informed decisions about medical care, their parent will no longer have access to the health information without the patient’s consent.
To inform our patients about their rights under the PHIPA and HIA, we have posted in clinic a notice explaining why we collect your individually identifying health information, and the legal authority that authorizes us to collect it.
Euclid Telehealth has appointed a Privacy Officer to oversee privacy issues for our clinic. If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding the privacy of your personal health information, please contact Euclid Telehealth’s Privacy Officer, Shehan Jinapriya at 1-800-511-5661 or email us at info@euclidtelehealth.org.
