Your safety & privacy

Everyone treated at one of our facilities has a health record. These records contain documents such as reports from care providers, test results and pharmacy information. All of your records are kept strictly confidential. Protecting your privacy is our priority.

We collect, use and disclose your information only where permitted or authorized to under the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. To learn more, visit the Information Privacy Office.

To learn more about keeping you safe from germs in our facilities, visit our Infection control page.

Who can access your information?

Our staff, physicians and other authorized individuals collect, use and share your personal information to deliver health services.

They may use and share your information for the following purposes:

For your immediate and ongoing care
To help improve your quality of care and services
For research purposes, if authorized and permitted by law
For teaching and education purposes (e.g. training doctors and nurses)
To understand your eligibility for benefits and services and to arrange payment
To create an electronic patient and or client record

Your personal information may also be disclosed to other authorized individuals as required by law (e.g. to respond to a court order) or under a specific statute (e.g. the Coroner’s Act or Adult Guardianship Act).

How is your information shared?

We use electronic records to share information efficiently and improve the quality of care we deliver. We record your information in our electronic clinical systems and use a shared electronic health record, CareConnect, to provide a single point of access for patient medical information. We also have access to patient identifiers in the Ministry of Health’s Electronic Master Patient Index, which we use to confirm your identity and for audit purposes.

How secure is your information?

We use a variety of safeguards to protect your electronic information including encryption, passwords and access audits. The more sensitive the information, the more protected it is. The E-Health (Personal Health Information Access and Protection of Privacy) Act is legislation that covers designated Health Information Banks. Under this legislation, we may only collect, use, or disclose your personal information for specific purposes as designated. If you have further questions about your personal information at Vancouver Coastal Health, contact the Information Privacy Office; or to request access to your health records, contact the Health Records department at the location where you were treated.

If you don’t want others to know you're in our care

It is standard practice to tell people who phone to ask about you for us to confirm you have been admitted to one of our facilities. If you don’t want this information to be released, let a staff member know and they will make a note on your file saying not to release any information about you.