Law Times

PAGE 10 FOCUS January 24, 2011 • Law Times New bill subjects hospitals to information requests O BY ROBERT TODD Law Times ntario's hospitals will be preparing for a slew of access-to-information requests next year when recently approved legislation subjecting their operations to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act kicks in. In the meantime, advocates for quality of care are praising the move to open up hospital records to the general public. "Transparency is one of the most important goals of people who are involved in patient advocacy," says Cybele Sack, who lobbied for the changes on behalf of her own advocacy group, ImPatient for Change. "Th is is a really important law because it now gives us access to fi nding out the data on our own terms without waiting for the hospital to communicate them, fi nding out what the causes are of injury and death, and through that the next step is to exert public pressure to get practices changed." But others note the challenges the new legislation will present. "It may mean a lot of administrative work," says Bonnie Freedman, Toronto regional leader of Bor- den Ladner Gervais LLP's privacy and access-to-information group. "Th e problem with process- will take hold on Jan. 1, 2012. Th e legislation diff ers from the Personal Health Informa- tion Protection Act in that the general public will have access to the records. It provides for access to one's own personal in- formation only. However, Bill 122 excludes history or the identity of a health- care provider. Other exclusions include the operations of a health profes- sional's personal practice, the provision of abortion services, the inner workings of a hospital foundation, the employment his- tory of staff ers, and research such Hands-on care will be affected, and the processes that lead to good care in our hospital system will change once accountability and transparency are increased. ing requests is they are varied. Sometimes the request is hard to understand, so you have to take the time to contact the requester and say, 'What is it you're really looking for?'" Th e changes allowing broad public access to information on hospitals' administrative and policy-related information were rolled into Bill 122, the Broader Public Sector Account- ability Act, that received Royal assent on Dec. 8. Th e legislation, which amends the freedom-of- information act to include hos- pitals as designated institutions, access to information on quality of care, defi ned in the Quality of Care Information Protection Act as that which "is collected by or prepared for a quality of care committee for the sole or primary purpose of assisting the committee in carrying out its functions" or "relates solely or primarily to any activity that a quality of care committee carries on as part of its functions." Also excluded is "personal health information," defi ned as "identifying information about an individual in oral or recorded form," such as someone's medical as clinical trials. Closed-door deliberations of hospital boards will also be ex- cluded, as will records created by or for counsel in relation to litigation. While hospitals will soon be- gin receiving access-to-informa- tion requests from journalists and other researchers eager to gain in- sight into their records, they got a partial break through a stipulation that the legislation applies only to records held as of Jan. 1, 2007. Other typical exemptions will also apply. Th ey include such things as labour relations materials and private information provided to hospitals by third parties. Freedman says the changes will aff ect hospitals in several ways. While they have experi- ence dealing with access requests from patients about their per- sonal health information, they'll face more sweeping requests un- der the new legislation. "Sometimes, the request is so broad that the search for the materials becomes quite onerous because the institution may not have organized the material in a way that facilitates the processing of the request," says Freedman. "So someone asks for infor- mation in a certain way, and you fi led or organized it diff erently, it can involve going to lots of diff er- ent places in an organization and lots of diff erent fi les." Th at will make it ever more important for hospitals to focus on optimizing their records-man- agement systems. Th e types of requests they receive once the leg- islation kicks in will likely inform those eff orts. In the meantime, Freedman recommends her clients review their inventory as many institu- tions don't have a clear picture of just what information they possess. "I know that may sound sur- Inside you will find: • an up-to-date alphabetical listing of more than 57,000 barristers, solicitors and Quebec notaries, corporate counsel, law firms and judges in Canada; • contact information for the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Canada, Federal Cabinet Ministers, departments, boards, commissions and Crown corporations; • legal and government contact information related to each province for the Courts of Appeal, Supreme Courts, County and District Courts, Provincial Courts, law societies, law schools, Legal Aid, and other law-related offices of importance. More than a phone book Hardbound • Published February each year • On subscription $146 • P/C 0600140999 One-time purchase $162 • P/C 0600010999 • ISSN 0084-8573 For a 30-day, no risk evaluation call 1.800.565.6967 Canada Law Book is a Division of The Cartwright Group Ltd. Prices subject to change without notice, to applicable taxes and shipping and handling. www.lawtimesnews.com CLL 1/2 4X.indd 1 1/19/11 11:53:19 AM prising, but in actual fact, un- less you sit down and you do an inventory and you classify the information, you may know stuff 's there but you haven't re- ally thought about how you would characterize that infor- mation," she says. Situations in which separate departments classify the same data diff erently can complicate a request signifi - cantly, Freedman adds. Others, however, were partic- ularly pleased with the changes after eff orts by the Ontario Medical Association and the Healthcare Insurance Recipro- cal of Canada to dampen them were unsuccessful. "Hands-on care will be af- fected, and the processes that lead to good care in our hospi- tal system will change once ac- countability and transparency are increased," says NDP health critic France Gélinas, the MPP for the Nickel Belt riding who previously served as the execu- tive director of a community health centre. Ontario Information and Pri- vacy Commissioner Ann Cavouki- an says the legislation was a long time coming. She notes Ontario was the only province without its hospitals falling under freedom-of- information provisions. Cavoukian's offi ce will use the year of lag time before the chang- es take hold to educate hospital staff on the legislation. She says a key concern is asserting that Bill 122 relates only to administrative and policy-related matters, not to personal health information. "To the uninitiated, it may look like they confl ict," says Ca- voukian. "Th e last thing I want is any kind of confusion as to what's supposed to go out and what's supposed to be locked up like Fort Knox." LT

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