Protecting the Privacy of Your Personal Health Information

Your Privacy is Important to Us!

North Bay Regional Health Centre treats your health information with respect and sensitivity, and does so in accordance with Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), and other applicable legislation.

We protect your privacy by only collecting, using and sharing your health information as permitted or required by law. We have security safeguards in place to protect your health information from theft, loss and unauthorized access or disclosure, and we train our staff and students on privacy and their obligation to protect your personal health information.

How is Your Information Used and Disclosed?

We have electronic and paper records of your personal health information that are updated each time you visit North Bay Regional Health Centre. This information is used by our health professionals and students involved in your care. There are other health-care providers external to North Bay Regional Health Centre who can access your electronic health record if they or their team are involved in your care.

We assume you consent to share your health information with external health-care providers involved in your care, such as doctors, hospitals, clinics, long-term care homes, and community agencies. We may also ask external health-care providers for information about you, if we need it for your care.

We may also collect, use and disclose your personal health information on a need to know basis for other purposes, including to:

  • Educate our students and staff
  • Notify you of an appointment or change to an appointment
  • Locate you or your family in urgent/emergent situations using an overhead paging system
  • Conduct research
  • Compile statistics
  • Plan, administer and manage our internal operations
  • Enhance safety and security
  • Conduct risk management and quality improvement activities
  • Conduct patient satisfaction surveys
  • Fundraise (your name and address only)
  • Get payment from OHIP, WSIB, private insurers or others
  • Obtain required information for patients detained under the Mental Health Act or Criminal Code of Canada
  • Refer you to an authorized community partner, such as the Red Cross, who may be able to assist you in accessing available community services
  • External electronic health record systems such as: Client Information Management System (CIMS), Integrated Services for Children’s Information System (ISCIS), Integrated Assessment Record (IAR), and Electronic Children’s Health Network (eCHN), and to facilitate the provincial government’s goal of providing a commonly available electronic health record.
  • Ministry of Health and Long Term Care e-health projects such as: the Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI), Wait Time Information System (WTIS), Drug Profile Viewer, Ontario Renal Reporting System (ORRS), and Ontario Laboratory Information System (OLIS)
  • Approved provincial agencies such as: Cancer Care Ontario, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, BORN, and Trillium Gift of Life.
  • Comply with legal and regulatory requirements

Circle of Care

We may collect, use and disclose personal health information on a need to know basis with the “Circle of Care”, which includes:

  • Our staff who need to know to provide care, including: physicians, nurses, technicians, therapists and other health care professionals
  • Other health care providers who are not our employees but may be required to assist in providing health care for you, including:
    • Health care practitioners and groups of health care practitioners,
    • Hospitals – public, psychiatric and private
    • Pharmacies
    • Laboratories
    • Ambulance Services
    • Homes for the Aged
    • Rest Homes
    • Nursing Homes
    • Retirement Homes
    • Other care homes
    • Homes for Special Care
    • Community health or mental health centres
    • Community Care Access Centres (CCAC)
    • Community Service Providers
    • Independent health facilities
    • Programs and services whose primary purposes are providing health care

We’re committed to:

  • Asking permission before disclosing any information for purposes not related directly to care (e.g. insurance companies, lawyers etc), unless otherwise required by law.

Your Information, Your Choice

You may withdraw your consent for some of the different ways we use or disclose your personal health information by contacting us (subject to exceptions, such as where disclosures are required by law or contractual obligations).

Unless you tell us differently, we may:

  • Advise visitors or callers that you are a patient in the North Bay Regional Health Centre and which unit you are on.
  • Disclose your personal health information to external health care providers who need it to provide you with care or to help provide you with care.
  • Share your information with provincial electronic health information databases.
  • Give your name, your location in the hospital, and your religious affiliation to community faith group representatives, but only if you tell us your religious affiliation.
  • Disclose your contact information (name and address only) to our Foundation so that they may conduct fundraising to improve our health care facilities, services and programs

You have the right to:

  • Withdraw consent for some of the above uses and disclosures by contacting us;
  • Access and / or request corrections to personal health information you have legal rights to.

For more information about our privacy practices, to discuss withdrawing consent, or to raise privacy concerns or complaints, please contact:

Privacy Office
North Bay Regional Health Centre
50 College Drive
North Bay ON P1B 0A4
705-474-8600, extension 3320
privacy@nbrhc.on.ca

For more information about accessing or correcting personal health information, please contact:

Clinical Records
North Bay Regional Health Centre
50 College Drive
North Bay ON P1B 0A4
705-474-8600, extension 2660

If you are not satisfied with our response to your privacy concerns, you can call or make a formal complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario at:

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400
Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8
Tel: 1-800-387-0073
www.ipc.on.ca

How to Request YOUR Health Record

  • Patients or their eligible substitute decision makers are entitled to access their health information. Some requests may be subject to approval by the health care provider.
  • All requests must be made in writing by completing the Consent for Release of Personal Health Information form, which can be accessed here.
  • Records are processed according to medical priority sequencing and will be completed in a timely manner. In accordance with the “Personal Health Information Protection Act” PHIPA, we have up to 30 days to process a completed request, but we strive to complete your request as soon as possible. Please discuss timelines further with Release of Information staff.
  • Release of Information staff are unable to interpret or advise on health issues or on the care documented in the records. We recommend that health information be reviewed in conjunction with your health care provider, so that interpretation may be provided if necessary.
  • E-mail is not considered a safe and secure means of communication.  We do not use e-mail to respond to requests for health records.
  • Completed requests can be mailed, faxed or hand-delivered to the North Bay Regional Health Centre to the attention of the Clinical Records Department – Release of Information.  Contact details are as follows:

Release of Information Contacts

Phone number: 705-474-8600, ext. 2660
Fax number: 705-495-7931
Mailing address: North Bay Regional Health Centre
Clinical Records – Release of Information
50 College Drive
North Bay, ON  P1A 5A4
Hours of operation: Monday to Friday, 0800-1530 hrs


Is there a fee?

  • There is no fee for providing information to other publically funded health care facilities or to  physicians for continuity of patient care
  • For other purposes, an administrative charge may apply based on the current fee schedule ( please see Fee Schedule below)
  • Prepayment is required – Release of Information staff will provide the fee amount.  Payments must be made to the Hospital Cashier, who will provide the proof of payment.

Fee Schedule – Requests for Health Records

Requestor Basic Fee HST Total Fee
Chart review with patient (per 15 minutes) $5.97 $0.78 $6.75
Solicitors/Insurance Companies $30.00 $3.90 $33.90
Proof of Birth or Hospitalization $10.00 $1.30 $11.30
CD Electronic Documentation $10.00 $1.30 $11.30
CD Radiology Films $10.00 $1.30 $11.30
Search Fee for Public/Access $30.00 $3.90 $33.90
Photocopies after 10 pages (Black/White) $0.25 $0.03 $0.28
Photocopies for all colour copies (per page) $1.00 $0.13 $1.13
WSIB $48.15
Criminal Injuries Compensation Board $150.00
College of Nurses or Physicians (per page) $0.25 $0.03 $0.28
Other Professional requests $30.00 $3.90 $33.90
Off Site retrieval of records (per box) $30.00 $3.90 $33.90
Rush Requests (in addition to basic fees) $50.00 $6.50 $56.50


Third Party Requests for Health Records:

All third party requests for health records must be:

  • made in writing, detailing the specific information and time-period being requested
  • be accompanied by a valid consent form signed by the patient or the substitute decision maker. The hospital’s Consent for Release of Personal Health Information form can be used.
  • E-mail is not considered a safe and secure means of communication. We do not use e-mail to respond to requests for health records.
  • be mailed, faxed, or hand-delivered to the North Bay Regional Health Centre to the attention of the Clinical Records Department – Release of Information. Contact details are as follows:

Release of Information Contacts

Phone number: 705-474-8600, ext. 2660
Fax number: 705-495-7931
Mailing address: North Bay Regional Health Centre
Clinical Records – Release of Information
50 College Drive
North Bay, ON  P1A 5A4
Hours of operation: Monday to Friday, 0800-1530 hrs

Please refer to the Fee Schedule for costs associated with a Third Party request.

For more information:

  • For additional information about accessing, requesting, or correcting health records, please contact Clinical Records at (705) 474-8600, ext. 2660.
  • If you have questions or to raise concerns/complaints about privacy, please contact our Coordinator, Freedom of Information and Privacy at (705) 474-8600, ext. 3320.
Protecting the Privacy of Your Personal Health Information

Contact Us:

Stéphane Grandmont
Coordinator Privacy and FOI
Tel: 705-495-7985 or (705) 474-8600, ext. 3320
Stephane.Grandmont@nbrhc.on.ca

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400
Toronto, Ontario
M4W 1A8
Tel: 1-800-387-0073
www.ipc.on.ca

North Bay

50 College Drive,
P.O. Box 2500
North Bay, ON
P1B 5A4
Tel: 705-474-8600

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Sudbury

680 Kirkwood Drive,
Sudbury, ON
P3E 1X3
Tel: 705-675-9193
Fax: 705-675-6817

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