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Proposed Legislation Extends Freedom of Information and Privacy Law to Hospitals
On October 20, 2010, the Ontario Government introduced Bill 122, the proposed Broader Public Sector Accountability Act, 2010. If passed, the proposed Act would:
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Bring Hospitals under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“FIPPA”);
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Prohibit Broader Public Sector organizations, including among others, government agencies, school boards, hospitals and universities from hiring lobbyists;
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Require the disclosure of expenses of Hospital CEOs and other members of senior management;
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Require Hospitals and LHINs to prepare reports on their use of consultants; and
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Provide authority for the government to impose mandatory procurement directives on larger Broader Public Sector organizations.
All of these changes will have a significant impact on the operation of Hospitals and other Broader Public Sector organizations. The amendments to bring Hospitals under FIPPA in particular will have far reaching operational and administrative implications for Hospitals.
Hospitals will be familiar with privacy legislation, as they have been operating under the Personal Health Information Protection Act and the Quality of Care Information Protection Act since 2004. However, FIPPA applies to a broader range of information, and provides a general right of access to members of the public to information held by the Hospital. This provides Ontario hospital employees with statutory privacy rights for the first time, and at the same time provides unions with a powerful new tool to use in grievances and collective bargaining.
Compliance with FIPPA will require substantial modifications to hospitals’ existing privacy compliance framework, and may in some cases require a paradigm shift in the way hospitals think about operational and administrative information in their control. Hospitals should be ready to deal with the operational and labour relations consequences of the new legislation as soon as the amendments come into force – experience suggests that the public and the unions will be quick to access their new rights.
We will be hosting a complimentary briefing session for interested hospital administrators in early December, to outline the scope of the new legislation and the implications of the application of FIPPA to hospitals.
For more information about this, or about any other aspect of the proposed Broader Public Sector Accountability Act, 2010, please contact:
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