A hospital stay in Saskatchewan could lead to more pleas from fundraisers for health foundations.
The government has passed an order-in-council that will allow health regions to release names and addresses of patients to agencies that raise money for health services and programs.
It’s up to patients to opt out of the process, not opt in. The measure takes effect in May.
Health minister Don McMorris said for decades hospitals and health foundations shared their information. In 2002, the then-NDP government changed the rules.
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“The intention of this change is to make it easier for publicly funded health facilities to identify people who might be motivated to donate, while maintaining meaningful protection of patients’ privacy,” McMorris said in a news release.
Privacy commissioner Gary Dickson disagreed, saying patients should have to give their consent to be on the list.
Opposition health critic Judy Junor said the government shouldn’t have acted without consulting patients. Consulting with health regions and hospital administrators left out the most important people, she said.
In the legislature, NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter called on the government to reverse its decision given the results of recent polls.
“One of them shows that 92 percent of the public don’t agree with the releasing of names and addresses of hospital patients,” he said.
McMorris said the protection of personal information is paramount. But he also said the health foundations do good work and the health regions must have privacy safeguards in place before releasing any names.
“This regulation allows health regions to enter into agreement with foundations if they so choose,” he said. “There’ll be health regions that don’t.”
McMorris added the privacy commissioner was consulted four times on the regulation and the government knows what his opinion is.
Meanwhile, Dickson last week called for tighter control of health information after an investigation found a pharmacist had improperly accessed the records of three people who weren’t his patients.
Dickson investigated following a complaint that a Melville pharmacist may have viewed information on the Pharmaceutical Information Program. Authorized health professionals can access the PIP, which contains prescription information.
This is the first breach of the system investigated by Dickson’s office.
He found that the records of an individual who had once been a customer and friend of the pharmacist were accessed, along with those of two family members, on four dates in January 2009.
Dickson said this constitutes a breach of the Health Information Protection Act by both the pharmacist and the pharmacy, which didn’t put policies in place to protect health information.
The Saskatchewan College of Pharmacists did not discipline the pharmacist but said it will look at its role in this situation.
Dickson recommended the pharmacist’s user privileges on the PIP be suspended until his pharmacy adopts proper procedures and that pharmacists in general get better training about the legislation.
The commissioner also said his investigation highlights significant weakness in the province’s electronic health records system. A lot of concern has been paid to the possibility that outsiders could try to compromise the system when the reality is that carelessness or curiosity of authorized users are a bigger threat, he said.
“It is critically important that all persons involved in our health care system recognize that motive is largely irrelevant when some patient’s privacy is violated,” Dickson said.
In Alberta, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has developed new requirements for developing privacy impact assessments (PIAs).
Commissioner Frank Work said they will help doctors and medical labs strike a balance between using health information to provide care and manage the health system and protecting Albertans’ privacy.
“The new requirements provide clear, concise and up to date instruction for health care providers that will help them assess risks associated with electronic health records such as Alberta Netcare,” said Work.
PIAs, procedures for safeguarding the privacy of health care files, are mandatory under the Health Information Act .
