Quality of Care Information Protection Act, 2016, S.O. 2016, c. 6, Sched. 2

• Jurisdiction: Ontario

Quality of Care Information Protection Act, 2016

S.o. 2016, chapter 6
Schedule 2

Consolidation Period: From September 25, 2023 to the e-Laws currency date.

Last amendment: 2023, c. 4, Sched. 1, s. 81.

CONTENTS

Preamble

The people of Ontario and their Government:

Believe in patient-centred health care;

Remain committed to improving the quality of health care provided by health facilities and maintaining the safety of patients;

Believe that quality health care and patient safety is best achieved in a manner that supports openness and transparency to patients and their authorized representatives regarding patient health care;

Recognize that health care providers and other staff in health facilities sometimes need to hold confidential discussions to identify and analyze errors affecting patients, systemic problems and opportunities for quality improvement in patient health care;

Believe that protections are needed to encourage and enable health care providers and other staff of health facilities to share all available information, provide honest assessment and opinions and participate in discussions to improve patient health care without fear of retaliation;

Believe that sharing information about critical incidents and quality improvement helps to improve the quality of health care for patients;

Are committed to ensuring that measures to facilitate the sharing of information for quality improvement purposes do not interfere with the right of patients and their authorized representatives to access information about their health care or with the obligations of health facilities to disclose such information to patients and their authorized representatives; and

Affirm that the inclusion of patients and their authorized representatives in the process of reviewing a critical incident helps to improve patient care, and therefore quality of care information protection must be implemented in a manner that supports such inclusion.

Purpose

1 The purpose of this Act is to enable confidential discussions in which information relating to errors, systemic problems and opportunities for quality improvement in health care delivery can be shared within authorized health facilities, in order to improve the quality of health care delivered to patients.

Interpretation

2 (1) In this Act,

“critical incident” means any unintended event that occurs when a patient receives health care from a health facility that,

(a) results in death, or serious disability, injury or harm to the patient, and

(b) does not result primarily from the patient’s underlying medical condition or from a known risk inherent in providing the health care; (“incident critique”)

“disclose” means, with respect to quality of care information, to provide or make the information available to a person who is not a member of the quality of care committee with which the information is associated, and “disclosure” has a corresponding meaning; (“divulguer”, “divulgation”)

“health care” means any observation, examination, assessment, care, service or procedure that is done for a health-related purpose and that,

(a) is carried out or provided to diagnose, treat or maintain an individual’s physical or mental condition,

(b) is carried out or provided to prevent disease or injury or to promote health, or

(c) is carried out or provided as part of palliative care,

and includes,

(d) the compounding, dispensing or selling of a drug, a device, equipment or any other item to an individual, or for the use of an individual, pursuant to a prescription, and

(e) a prescribed type of service; (“soins de santé”)

“health facility” means,

(a) a hospital within the meaning of the Public Hospitals Act,

(b) a private hospital within the meaning of the Private Hospitals Act,

(c) a psychiatric facility within the meaning of the Mental Health Act,

(d) an integrated community health services centre within the meaning of the Integrated Community Health Services Centres Act, 2023, or

(e) a prescribed entity that provides health care; (“établissement de santé”)

“information” includes personal health information as defined in the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004; (“renseignements”)

“Minister” means the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care; (“ministre”)

“patient” means a recipient of health care; (“patient”)

“patient record” means a record that is maintained for the purpose of providing health care to a patient; (“dossier du patient”)

“prescribed” means prescribed by the regulations; (“prescrit”)

“proceeding” includes a proceeding that is within the jurisdiction of the Legislature and that is held in, before or under the rules of a court, a tribunal, a commission, a justice of the peace, a coroner, a committee of a College within the meaning of the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, a committee of the Board of Regents continued under the Drugless Practitioners Act, a committee of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers under the Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998, an arbitrator or a mediator, but does not include any activities carried on by a quality of care committee; (“instance”)

Note: On a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor, the definition of “proceeding” in subsection 2 (1) of the Act is repealed and the following substituted: (See: 2021, c. 27, Sched. 2, s. 69)

“proceeding” includes a proceeding that is within the jurisdiction of the Legislature and that is held in, before or under the rules of a court, a tribunal, a commission, a justice of the peace, a coroner, a committee of a College within the meaning of the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, a committee of the Board of Regents continued under the Drugless Practitioners Act, a committee of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers under the Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998, a committee of the Authority within the meaning of the Health and Supportive Care Providers Oversight Authority Act, 2021, an arbitrator or a mediator, but does not include any activities carried on by a quality of care committee; (“instance”)

“quality of care committee” means a body of one or more individuals that performs quality of care functions and,

(a) that is established, appointed or approved,

(i) by a health facility,

(ii) by a quality oversight entity, or

(iii) by any combination of health facilities or quality oversight entities, and

(b) that meets the prescribed criteria, if any; (“comité de la qualité des soins”)

“quality of care functions”, in respect of a quality of care committee, means activities carried on for the purpose of studying, assessing or evaluating the provision of health care with a view to improving or maintaining the quality of the health care and include conducting reviews of critical incidents; (“fonctions liées à la qualité des soins”)

“quality oversight entity” means a prescribed entity that carries on activities for the purpose of improving or maintaining the quality of care provided by a health facility, a health care provider or a class of health facility or health care provider; (“entité de surveillance de la qualité”)

“regulations” mean the regulations made under this Act; (“règlements”)

“use”, with respect to quality of care information, does not include to disclose the information and “use”, as a noun, does not include disclosure of the information; (“utiliser”, “utilisation”)

“witness” means a person, whether or not a party to a proceeding, who, in the course of the proceeding,

(a) is examined or cross-examined for discovery, either orally or in writing,

(b) makes an affidavit, or

(c) is competent or compellable to be examined or cross-examined or to produce a document, whether under oath or not. (“témoin”) 2016, c. 6, Sched. 2, s. 2 (1); 2023, c. 4, Sched. 1, s. 81.

Quality of care information

(2) Subject to subsection (3), in this Act,

“quality of care information” means information that,

(a) is collected or prepared by or for a quality of care committee for the sole or primary purpose of assisting the committee in...