How Confidential are your Health Records?
August 30 2010
Edmonton – On September 1, the Alberta government will put in force new regulations governing the electronic health records of all Albertans. Alberta Liberal Deputy Leader Laurie Blakeman says that the scheme presents grave privacy concerns.
A person’s health is a very private thing. Blakeman says that the legislation introducing electronic health records leaves large loopholes that could expose sensitive, confidential patient information to health providers who do not necessarily need to know. The new regulation does not limit the access to information to certain health professions; because of this lack of clarity, your massage therapist, dentist or acupuncturist can get access to your treatment for an STD, drug rehabilitation or wart removal. For some reason, Alberta is weakening, rather than strengthening, privacy protection, while other provinces are moving in the opposite direction. Refusing to honour the wishes of Albertans to have their records "masked," or kept confidential, is an example. "The Stelmach administration’s legislation says that a health care provider need only a patient’s wishes with regard to how much of their personal health information can be shared with other doctors, nurses or other custodians of this kind of information," Blakeman notes. "‘Consider,’ not ‘obey.’ The office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has pointed out that there’s no guarantee that all health care providers will necessarily follow the wishes of their patients when it comes to masking and keeping their information private." Blakeman says that patients being treated for sensitive illnesses or conditions such as sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, mental illness, gambling addictions and so on have good reason for limiting knowledge of their disease to their primary physician. "Unfortunately, the Stelmach administration’s plan doesn’t provide nearly enough protection for personal privacy," Blakeman says. "With this legislation, a privately paid test required as part of a job application will now be included in a person’s health record. Previously, only health procedures paid through the public system were included." "These loopholes could expose Albertans to all kinds of unpleasant consequences," Blakeman continues. "Shunning, difficulty finding work, damage to relationships…people still have a right to privacy as far as I’m concerned, for all kinds of reasons." Increasingly, people will simply refuse to provide information since they can’t control who else will see that information, which defeats the purpose of electronic health records in the first place." Blakeman says that an Alberta Liberal administration would close these privacy loopholes and protect personal, private health records from wide dissemination.
