Manitoba Health
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The Personal Health Information Amendment Act - effective May 1, 2010
The Personal Health Amendment Act will amend PHIA. Most of the amendments will come into force on May 1, 2010.
Among other things, these amendments will: improve patient safety by supporting your right to access the information about the care you are currently receiving promptly; within 24 hours of requesting it for hospital inpatients; and, within 72 hours for hospital outpatients, personal care home residents and persons receiving care in the community. The amendments will also require that patients be provided with information about their rights to access their personal health information and the right to authorize another person to access that information on their behalf.
View The Personal Health Information Amendment Act
The Personal Health Information Act
The Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) provides you with the right to:
- access your personal health information, and
- have your personal health information kept private
when that information is held by a health care provider, health care facility or public body (referred to in the Act as "trustees").
Click here to view The Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) Click here to view The Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) Regulation Click here to view The Personal Health Information Amendment Act Click here to view The Personal Health Information Regulation Amendment |
Access
The right of access means that you can ask to see, or get a copy of, personal health information about you. You also have the right to request a correction to this information if you feel it is inaccurate or incomplete.
Access to your health records allows you to make informed decisions, based on complete information, about your health and health care.
Privacy
PHIA also recognizes that personal health information is private and should be held in confidence by those who maintain it. This enables you to discuss things you might find sensitive or embarrassing with trustees without worrying that they will discuss it with others inappropriately.
In order to protect your right to privacy, PHIA imposes obligations on trustees when they collect, maintain, use and share your personal health information.
When trustees collect personal health information from you, they will normally use that information for the reasons it was provided. For example, if you discuss personal health information with a health care provider, he or she will use that information to provide you with the care you are seeking.
Before trustees can use this information for other reasons -- or share it with people outside their organization -- they should generally get your consent. There are some exceptions to this obligation, however. Here are a few examples:
- A health care provider may share information about you with another provider who is involved in your care, as long as the information is relevant and as long as you haven’t asked the first provider not to.
- A hospital may contact your family and inform them that you are hurt or injured if you can’t inform them yourself.
- A hospital or personal care home may discuss, with family members and close friends, care you are currently receiving in the facility, as long as the facility believes you wouldn’t object.
- A trustee might share personal health information with an outside agency if it is necessary to prevent serious harm to you or someone else.
- A trustee might also have to share personal health information about you if another law requires them to do so.
For a complete list of the exceptions to consent, see sections 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 of PHIA.
For more information, please contact: |
Legislative Unit |