Hi Everyone:
I am writing to draw your attention to the high value UHN places on the confidentiality of our patients and the protection of their personal health information. We would like to take this time to remind everyone of our respective organizations' privacy policies.
Access to any aspect of a patient's record is restricted to the individuals involved in the circle of care for that patient. Violation of a patient's privacy, as stated on our confidentiality agreement upon employment, may lead to disciplinary action up to and including termination.
I'm addressing this issue at this time because UHN recently performed electronic audits of our clinical information systems and some incidents were identified where staff may have inappropriately accessed the electronic records of individual patients. UHN performs regular random audits on our clinical information systems to determine if inappropriate access to patient records has occurred. Currently, we are inquiring into these recent cases to determine if access was appropriate, and if not, to determine appropriate disciplinary actions.
Disciplinary actions - on a case-by-case basis - could include verbal or written warnings, suspensions or dismissal. Attached below for your reference is a link to the Information Protection Services page on the Corporate Intranet. If you are unclear about confidentiality, please take a moment to review the information it includes.
http://intranet.uhn.ca/departments/privacy/AppropriateAccess.asp
I can't stress enough the responsibility we have to take patient confidentiality and the protection of personal health information extremely seriously. That is why UHN has been highly proactive in this regard. We have a corporate confidentiality policy for dealing with inappropriate access to personal health information. I recognize that most of you take confidentiality extremely seriously and would never violate a patient's privacy.
If you have questions, need clarification or feel you have identified any issues you believe compromise patient confidentiality and privacy, I urge you to contact Robin Gould-Soil, Director Privacy and Access at 14-4357.
Justine Jackson
