We Take Your Privacy Seriously

 What is the EHR

Ontario’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) contains a secure digital record of individuals’ personal health information, which is made available electronically for health care providers to care for their patients. For more information, please visit Electronic Health Record Plain Language Description and List of Repositories that are Accessible by the Electronic Health Record | eHealth Ontario | It’s Working For You

Consent Directives

A consent directive gives patients - or their substitute decision makers - the option to restrict access to personal health information in the EHR. If you - or your substitute decision maker - do not want to share health information with members of your health care team, you can restrict access by requesting a consent directive be added to your EHR. If a consent directive is in place and a clinician tries to access your record, a notification that your record is blocked will appear. 

Restricting access doesn’t stop your records from being updated – new information will continue to be added by your healthcare providers throughout your healthcare journey. You can choose to unblock your record at any time by submitting a new request. Once the consent directive has been applied or removed, you will receive a confirmation letter.

Ontario Health receives health information for the EHR from multiple health care providers across the province. As a result, certain types of health information may be held in more than one repository of the EHR. This means that applying a consent directive to the information in one repository may not limit access to this same information in another repository. For example, information about laboratory test results stored within the OLIS repository or medication information within DHDR may also be noted in a report in the acCDR repository (such as a discharge summary). This should be considered when making a request on the EHR Consent Directive Request form.

Consent Overrides

In accordance with PHIPA, there are certain circumstances where a health information custodian may access information in the EHR which is subject to a consent directive. This is known as a consent override. The Electronic Health Record Consent Directive and Consent Override Policy outlines the circumstances where an override is permitted. The policy is available here: https://ehealthontario.on.ca/en/shared/ehr-consent-directive-consent-override-policy

Note that in some instances, a health information custodian may not have the technical ability  to perform a consent override, and therefore may not be able to access the personal health information while a consent directive is in place, even if there is a significant risk of serious bodily harm to the individual to whom the information relates or to another person or group of persons.

Requesting to block or unblock access to your records in the EHR

Complete the EHR Consent Directive Request Form and submit to Ontario Health – Privacy Office.

For more details, please see the Electronic Health Record Consent Directive and Consent Override Policy and Procedure.