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Notice to Patients

The Ottawa Hospital collects, uses, shares, and keeps personal health information consistent with our legal obligations:

As well, we disclose your contact information to The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, so that they may conduct fundraising to improve our health-care facilities, services, and programs.

Access and corrections to your personal health information

The Ottawa Hospital uses an electronic health record. Other health-care providers outside of The Ottawa Hospital may access your electronic health record, but they or their team must be involved in your care and sign an agreement with The Ottawa Hospital.

The Ottawa 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
  • Health-care organization members using Care Everywhere,
  • Billing agents, and
  • Community health-care partners

Your personal information is shared with:

  • The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
  • Health Canada
  • Ottawa Public Health
  • Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
  • Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES)
  • 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 of the campus where you usually receive care.

To request a correction to your health record:

  • Talk to your health-care provider at your next visit, or
  • Contact the Health Records Department at the campus where you usually receive care.

Safeguards

The Information and Privacy Office at The Ottawa Hospital is dedicated to protecting your  personal health information from theft, loss and unauthorized access, copying, modification, use, disclosure, and disposal. One of the key methods we use to safeguard your information is de-identification, which ensures that your data cannot be traced back to you. Once de-identified, the information is no longer considered personal health information under the law, allowing us to use and disclose it without compromising your privacy. This process is carried out in accordance with Ontario health privacy laws, and is used solely for purposes that align with our vision of providing world-class care, exceptional service and compassionate care we would want for our loved ones.

We also conduct audits and investigations to monitor and manage privacy compliance at The Ottawa Hospital. We 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.

Although, the Epic electronic health record is an American-based software, rest assured that your personal health information remains in Canada and is not sent to the United States, unless explicitly told to you otherwise, such as when limited information is stored in the United States for our AI Scribe (see the section on Artificial Intelligence in this Privacy Notice).

We also ensure third-party technology vendors that have access to personal health information for healthcare purposes have robust privacy safeguards in place, including and especially when we use artificial intelligence for healthcare purposes (see the section on Artificial Intelligence in this Privacy Notice).

Consent

In addition to the steps The Ottawa 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 your personal health information.

Please discuss with a member of your health team the risks and benefits of placing a consent directive on your health record. A consent directive may be overridden with your express consent, or in other circumstances permitted by law. Please see the Consent Directives section for additional details.

Privacy Level Code

We use different privacy level codes to control or limit who knows you are admitted to 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 the hospital, you, or your substitute decision-maker on your behalf, may request that a Privacy Level Code be placed in our patient registration system for each admission.

Contact Information

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

Information and Privacy Office, The Ottawa Hospital
Phone: 613-739-6668
Fax: 613-761-4740
E-mail: infoprivacyoffice@toh.ca

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

Last updated on: November 26th, 2025