Privacy Code
Our Commitment to Protecting Your Privacy
The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent is committed to protecting the privacy of its clients and their families. The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent embraces the principles that all personal information is properly collected, used only for the purposes for which it is collected, and is disposed of in a safe and timely manner when no longer required.
The Privacy Principles
1 - We are accountable for your personal information
We are responsible for all personal information in our possession.
All employees and authorized service providers of The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent are required to protect the confidentiality of your personal information. We take every precaution to ensure confidentiality of your information.
2 - We collect, use and disclose information about you for the following purposes
- To deliver safe and efficient care and to identify and to ensure continuous high quality service.
- To assess your needs, to provide care and to advise you of treatment options.
- To enable us to contact you and to establish and maintain communication with you
- To communicate with other health-care providers and specialists
- To allow us to maintain communication and contact with you, your spouse or common-law partner, your children, or relatives, to distribute information and to book and confirm appointments
- To comply with the law
- To share required personal information for equipment funding programs
- To share contact information with the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent Foundation for awareness/fundraising purposes
Personal information collected will be limited to that required for the purposes identified by us.
3 - We keep your personal information accurate and up to date
We maintain appropriate procedures to ensure that personal information in our possession is accurate and up to date. You are entitled to seek a correction of your personal information if you believe that the information in our possession is not correct.
If you believe any of the information we have collected about you is incorrect or incomplete, we encourage you to advise us of the changes and we will update the information.
4 - We do not sell your personal information
We do not sell your personal information. We share your personal information with other organizations only in the following circumstances:
- When a Release of information form is signed by you and on file indicating your wish to share information with a named physician, agency, caregiver or other individual
- With staff members. All staff members who come in contact with your personal information are aware of the sensitive nature of the information that you have disclosed to us. They are all trained in the appropriate uses and protection of your information and have signed a confidentiality agreement.
5 - We will limit how long we keep information
We will keep your personal information only as long as it is necessary to satisfy the purposes for which it was obtained, or as required by law. The Public Hospitals Act requires all records to be kept ten years or at least ten years past the client’s age of majority. When we destroy personal information, we will use safeguards to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to that information during the process.
6 - We safeguard your personal information
The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent will protect your personal information by safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of that information. We maintain appropriate technical and organizational safeguards to protect your personal information against loss, theft and unauthorized access. Organizational measures of securing information include use of a fire proof vault, security clearances, limiting access on a “need-to-know” basis, and technological measures such as the use of passwords, firewalls and virus protection.
In the rare instance where your personal health information is released in error, we will do everything possible to recover that information and you will be notified immediately by The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent’s Health Information Custodian.
7 - We will be open about our privacy practices
The Children’s Treat Centre of Chatham-Kent will make readily available to you specific information about our policies and practices relating to the management of personal information.
8 - We allow you to access your personal information
You may ask to review any personal information about yourself to ensure that it is accurate. To do this, submit a request in writing to Joe Dawson, The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent’s Health Information Custodian.
9 - You may register a complaint
You may register a privacy-related complaint by contacting Joe Dawson, The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent Health Information Custodian. We will explain our procedure and inform you about other complaint procedures available including complaining to the Information and Privacy commissioner of Ontario. We will investigate all complaints. If an objection is justified, we will take all appropriate steps to repair the situation, including changing our policies and practices if necessary.
10 - We will obtain your consent
By voluntarily supplying information relevant to you or your child’s personal health we will infer that you
are giving us your consent for us to collect and use the information for the purposes outlined in paragraph
2. If however, any of the information needs to be disclosed to other individuals or organizations then
your written consent for the release of that information will be obtained before the information is
disclosed.
You have the right to refuse to give both the written “express” consent as well as the above noted
”implied ” consent. You may withdraw your consent for use or disclosure of your personal information,
and we will explain the possible outcomes of that decision.
When unusual requests are received, we will contact you for permission to release such information. We may also advise you if such a release is inappropriate. The rare exception to obtaining consent is in the event of an emergency.
For more information, please contact The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent’s Health Information Custodian Joe Dawson at (519) 354-0520 extension 254 or by email to jdawson@childrenstreatment-ck.com
