Privacy and confidentiality issues as they relate to the local health services sector were highlighted at the June 24 meeting of the Sun Country Health Region’s board of directors.
The 20-minute presentation delivered by Krista Bostock, assisted by Jong Choi who investigate privacy issues in southeast Saskatchewan, made reference to the Health Information Protection Act (HIPA) and how electronic systems and monitoring is carried out in the local health region.
Bostock, who provided the verbal part of the report, outlined what constituted a breach, recent changes in provincial legislation as they relate to confidentiality and the education of employees.
“Privacy is a person’s right to control who gets to see their information and how it is used. The right to keep things to yourself,” said Bostock.
A major rule-of-thumb and edict for Sun Country employees, she said is, “if an employee recognizes a patient but is not involved in providing care to that patient (need to know), then they are not authorized to access information on that patient. Viewing a patient’s information for reasons other than a “need to know” is considered an invasion of privacy and a privacy breach,” she said.
Bostock went on to say that every employee in the health region is responsible in safeguarding the secrecy of personal health information concerning patients/clients/residents.
There are occasions, she said, when one employee bearing private information on a patient may need to share information with another authorized health provider on a need to know basis may pass that information along for that particular episode of care. Sharing information for reasons other than that, is also considered a breach of privacy.
Bostock added that clients and employees alike sometimes feel privacy and confidentiality rights are not always respected.
Later, Sun Country CEO Marga Cugnet cited a couple of examples within the past year where the privacy breach rules were compromised and the employees were immediately suspended and/or their employment terminated.
Because of the growing need for electronic systems in health care, additional precautions are implemented to ensure privacy, said the presenter.
The electronic records are more powerful than paper records since hundreds can be viewed quickly and they can be accessed from almost anywhere,” Bostock pointed out.
So that was a very good reason to make sure breaches were prevented.
She said even on occasion, seemingly innocent coffee room conversations may enter into the realm of potential privacy breaches, so it was important for all employees to be aware and sensitive to these potential mishaps.
The team has accessed an educational 15-minute video that explains the fundamental needs of health region employees to keep privacy matters private. The video is played for all employees in the region so that such errors such as sharing sign-on codes or passwords doesn’t happen or that documents with client information are not left unguarded on a printer, desktop or photocopier or asking to use someone else’s sign-on code or password.
“Looking up information on yourself, co-workers, family, friends, neighbours with or without their permission, is definitely a breach,” said Bostock. “We emphasize the importance of never accessing information for personal interest or curiosity.”
