{"id":3241,"date":"2015-06-05T15:58:05","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T19:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.229.122.34\/en\/?p=3241"},"modified":"2017-04-03T11:20:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T15:20:46","slug":"is-it-worth-it-the-consequences-of-snooping-on-health-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/newsroom\/is-it-worth-it-the-consequences-of-snooping-on-health-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it worth it? The consequences of snooping on health records"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 5, 2015 \u2013<\/strong> In celebration of its annual Privacy Awareness Week, The Ottawa Hospital held events and answered questions at information booths across its three campuses from June 1 to 5.<\/p>\n

The main event was a panel discussion hosted by The Ottawa Hospital in conjunction with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC). Key stakeholders examined the importance of privacy within the health-care environment, the impact of changing technology, and how the legal landscape has recently shifted, heralding a new era of risks and penalties when it comes to privacy breaches.<\/p>\n

Across Ontario, there have been a number of privacy breaches where personal health information was accessed by health professionals for unauthorized purposes. Whether out of curiosity, personal gain or simple concern about the health of friends and family, snooping through medical records can have devastating consequences for patients, health professionals and the health system as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivacy breaches come in all forms. Even when they are filled with good intent, they are still breaches and are potentially subject to fines of up to $50,000, prosecution, termination or revocation of privileges and reports to professional colleges,\u201d said Nyranne Martin, General Counsel at The Ottawa Hospital. \u201cThe risks for institutions include fines of up to $250,000, class action lawsuits and reputational damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the risks associated with privacy breaches, the hospital\u2019s Information and Privacy Office has set the goal for its program of achieving high visibility, high impact and high compliance. \u201cAt The Ottawa Hospital, we must all protect our patients\u2019 rights. We also want to help our staff and physicians protect their careers\u2019\u2019, said Martin.<\/p>\n

To create a culture of privacy protection and in an effort to reinforce its policies, the hospital has implemented mandatory training for all staff and physicians on privacy and information security. The hospital has also stepped up its communications with staff and physicians to increase awareness of the issue, including messages in the hospital\u2019s weekly newsletter and visits by members of the privacy team to various units for training sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those who would consider violating the privacy of patients, I want them to think twice and ask themselves if it is worth it,\u201d said Brian Beamish, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. \u201cI believe that by working together, we can find a way to minimize the risk of privacy breaches from happening.\u201d
\n
\nMedia contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
Hazel Harding
\nCommunications Advisor
\nThe Ottawa Hospital
\nE: hharding@toh.on.ca
\n<\/a>T: 613.737.8460<\/div>\n

Rob McMahon
\nDirector of Communications
\nInformation and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
\nE: Rob.McMahon@ipc.on.ca
\n<\/a>M: 416.627.0307<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 5, 2015 \u2013 In celebration of its annual Privacy Awareness Week, The Ottawa Hospital held events and answered questions at information booths across its three campuses from June 1 to 5. The main event was a panel discussion hosted by The Ottawa Hospital in conjunction with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsroom"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}