Privacy Policies

Providing the best possible medical care to our patients is our foremost priority. In order to serve all of our patients optimally, we follow a set of clinic policies in compliance of the standard of practice in this province. We ask that all physicians and patients respect the Clinic’s policies and we encourage everyone to ask us questions they may have regarding these policies.

Public Privacy Notice
We are committed to promoting privacy and protecting the confidentiality of the health information we hold about our patients. The Peterborough Clinic is the health information custodian under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004. For the purposes of privacy obligations, our physicians, allied health professionals, employees and others affiliated with The Peterborough Clinic are agents of the Clinic. This means we all follow the same rules and work together to protect your privacy.

PTCL Lockbox Policy
Ontario’s health privacy law, the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), provides individuals with the right to make choices about, and control, how their personal health information (PHI) is collected, used, and disclosed. PHIPA gives patients the opportunity to restrict access to any or their entire PHI by one or more team members or by external health care providers.

PTCL Lockbox Information Brochure and PTCL Lockbox Request Form
You have a right to make choices and control how your health information held by The Peterborough Clinic is collected, used and disclosed, subject to a few exceptions. You have the right to ask that we not share some or all of your health record with your physician’s staff members involved in your care, or ask us not to share your health record with your external health care providers (such as a hospital or a specialist). This is informally known as asking for a “lockbox.”

PTCL Patient Safeguard Guidelines
As part of our duties, we must all take steps to keep patient information safe and make sure that it can be accessed only by those who need to see it for a proper reason. Following these guidelines will minimize the risk of patient information falling into the wrong hands which could cause harm and distress to patients and legal consequences to The Peterborough Clinic.

PTCL Access and Correction Policy
The Peterborough Clinic is the custodian of all patient health records (including the electronic health record). However, the information in the health record belongs to the patient and the patient has a right of access to that information and the right to direct his/her physician to share that information or not share that information with others, subject to some exceptions.

Privacy on Clinic Premises
The Peterborough Clinic manages and maintains a video surveillance system on its premises. The video/images, monitoring and recordings are designed and operated in a manner that minimizes privacy intrusion. Information obtained through video/image recording will be used for Clinic security, safety and the monitoring of employment activities. All information obtained through the surveillance system is confidential and will only be released when authorized by the Chief Administrative Officer. All persons involved in the use of surveillance equipment at The Peterborough Clinic will be appropriately trained and supervised in the responsible use of this technology.