This information is to help you understand what happens to your personal health information when you are a patient at NWHC.

Privacy Notice to Patients

Your request for health care services gives North Wellington Health Care permission to use our personal information for specific, related purposes.

North Wellington Health Care collects, uses, shares and keeps your personal information for the following purposes:

1. For your own health care and treatment

Members of your health care team will have access to your health information to help them provide you care and treatment.

2. For running the Hospital

Your personal information could be used for studies, including patient satisfaction surveys, to show how we are doing and to help us do our jobs better, to help in planning for future patient care, and making sure we treat you the quickest, best and safest way we can.

Your name and address is the ONLY personal information made available to the two foundations which support NWHC. The foundations for example raise money to purchase new hospital equipment.

3. Ministry of Health & Long Term Care

The Ontario Ministry of Health requires hospitals to send information on each patient, when they leave the hospital, to the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI).

This is so that the Ministry of Health can gather statistics to help them assess the health care system.

Information is also given to the Ontario Health Insurance Program (OHIP) that pays for some of your hospital services.

4. Meeting legal and regulatory requirements

Sometimes, it is the law for the Hospital to give out personal health information.

• Suspected child abuse cases to the Children’s Aid Society; and,
• Contagious diseases, such as sexually transmitted diseases, to the Public Health Unit.

5. Health care registries and statistics for research

• If you have had cancer – to the Ontario Cancer Registry
• If you have had heart disease – to the Ontario Cardiac Care Network

These health registries may use your personal health information for improving health care, statistics or research.

Express Consent

There are other times when the Hospital will ask you for your express consent to use your personal information for specific purposes. This means you will be asked for your permission before your personal information can be shared with others. For example:

• The Ontario Breast Screening Program (OBSP);
• The HIV Treatment Network;
• Non-Insured Health Benefits of Health Canada that delivers health and insurance benefits to First Nations and Inuit across Canada; and,
• The Canadian Joint Replacement Registry of CIHI.

Privacy Policy

Your personal information will only be used in compliance with the Hospital’s Privacy Policy, which you may ask to see.

If you wish to learn more about how your personal information will be used and the security measures being taken to keep your information safe and confidential, please ask your health care provider. Your personal information will not be used for any other purpose without your consent.

The Hospital has guidelines that tell us how to safely keep or to destroy your personal information. Please ask if you wish to know more about this. Also, the Hospital can give you a record of how your information has been used.

If you wish, you may make an appointment to see your own personal information. You have the right to change it if it is not correct. Your health care provider may refer you to the Hospital’s Chief Privacy Officer (see below for contact information).

Questions and Complaints