Your Privacy
Download the Protecting Your Privacy brochure.
What does privacy mean to us?
At Western Health, we are committed to keeping all information about you and your family members (our patients / clients / residents), confidential.
As part of our ongoing commitment to you, we want you to know why we ask for your personal information, how we use it and keep it safe, and how you can ask about your information.
What personal information do we collect?
- Information that identifies you as an individual such as your name, address, date of birth, and MCP number
- Information about your needs in order to plan services with you
- Information about the services you receive
Where does your personal information come from?
- Directly from you (our patient / client / resident)
- From other organizations who refer you to us for services
- From other Western Health professionals when it is required by law that information be reported. Examples include child protection and infectious diseases
- From other sources, with your consent
Why do we collect your personal information?
- To correctly identify you as the person needing our services
- To be able to contact you when necessary
- To identify your needs so that we may provide services to you
- To plan and manage our services
- To meet legal requirements for reporting to government
Sharing your personal information
Our employees work together as a team to provide you with services. This may mean that some of your information may be shared among your team members to make sure you get the best possible service.
Western Health is part of a larger provincial health care system. Therefore, information such as your name, address, date of birth, and MCP number will be shared with the province-wide Client Registry. This will keep your information current and accurate.
Information may also be shared for statistical purposes or research. We will either remove your name and other information that identifies you or contact you for your consent before release.
Safeguards
We take seriously our duty to keep your information private. It will only be released when you give us consent to do so or when we are required by law. Western Health has policies and procedures in place to make sure that your information is protected from being lost or shared without your permission.
Professional employees are guided by their professional codes of ethics and have signed confidentiality agreements. Your information is also protected through the use of :
- Secure locks on cabinets and doors
- Limited access to records and work locations by approved employees only
- Passwords and other security measures for computers
What are your rights?
- To know what information we have about you in our records
- To review and obtain a copy of your records. Exceptions may apply.
- To know who has access to your records and for what reason
- To correct or add information to your record
- To ask about our information policies and talk to us about them
- To tell us if you think we are not following our policies or if you have concerns that you wish to be heard
Our commitment to you
At Western Health, we take our responsibility to protect the security and confidentiality of your information very seriously. If we identify any concerns with the security or accuracy of your information we will contact you.
If you have questions or concerns about your personal information, please talk with your care / service provider.
Who can I contact?
If you have questions about privacy, please contact our Privacy Manager at (709) 784-5248 between 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday.
For more information about information access and privacy please visit the following website: