Province tightens up health info security
The province is tightening up the Health Information Protection Act (HIPA).
Changes are a result of recommendations, released in 2014, that were put together by the Health Records Protection Working Group. That group was put together in 2012 because, a year earlier, a large number of patient files were found in a recycling bin behind the Albert Park Medical Clinic in Regina.
Someone noticed the records and told authorities. As a result, a Regina doctor was found responsible and the group was formed to make sure another, similar incident didn’t happen again.
“We take seriously our responsibility to protect the privacy of Saskatchewan residents’ personal health information,” Health Minister Dustin Duncan said in a statement.
Amendments to the legislation include a strict liability offence, which changes how people are found responsible for unsecured records. The trustee responsible for the records would need to show they took all reasonable steps to prevent abandonment, and means the Crown would not have to prove the trustee meant to abandon the records, just that they did not take reasonable steps to secure them.
Individual offences, under the changes, of wilful disclosure of personal information as outlined in HIPA will now apply not only to trustees, but also to people employed by those trustees.
A snooping offence will also be included. That will establish inappropriate use of health information by employees who access the information without a need for it. Another provision will be added to HIPA to create a system to quickly respond to discoveries of abandoned or unsecured records and to take control of the records.
Not all of the recommendations made by the working group are being reflected in changes to the law.
The government says it is currently developing a regulatory and policy framework to address the outstanding recommendations.
That includes a better way of controlling and storing records that have been abandoned and clarifying what exactly is meant by the term “trustee” in physician practice arrangements.