Does your medical practice collect personal health information?
If so, you may need to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA).
The Health Information Act requires health providers to complete a Privacy Impact Assessment when you:
- open a new clinic
- establish a new health services program
- change how you collect and use personal information
- implement Electronic Medical Records (EMR), or transition to a new EMR provider
- share information with a Primary Care Network or other health program
- access health information from Netcare or other data repositories
Information Managers' Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) consultation helps you document your practices, meet practice management best practices, and ensure compliance with regulatory legislation.
The PIA consultation includes reviewing your current practices, documenting current or new privacy and security policies and procedures, information flow, legal authority analysis, risk assessment, and Privacy Impact Analysis. Contact us and we’ll take a look at your current office practices and let you know how we can help make your workload easier, your information secure, and meet regulatory compliance.
The ABCs of Privacy Impact Assessments
What do you know about Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs)? If you have implemented an electronic medical record (EMR ) funded through a provincial program, you have probably had to go through a PIA. It was probably time consuming to some degree, but perhaps not as bad as you thought. Jean Eaton is a consultant and expert on Privacy Impact assessments in the medical office. She explains in this blog post, The ABCs of Privacy Impact Assessments, what you should expect when required to undertake a PIA.
Listen to the podcast with Dr. Alan Brookstone of Canadian EMR.
Document Management Tip: What is a Privacy Impact Assessment?
YouTube video: What is a Privacy Impact Assessment? Who needs a PIA? How can I tell if I have a PIA? Information about privacy impact assessments in Canada. Additional details for Alberta and Health Information Act, HIA, OIPC.
Having problems viewing the video here? Watch it on our YouTube channel: What is a PIA?
Computer Network Vendors and Privacy Impact Assessment
Video especially for vendors that supports healthcare practices
E-course: Protect Your Practice, Your Assets, and Your Patients with Privacy Impact Assessments
A PIA should be as common place to a healthcare practice as a business plan is to a business. BUT most healthcare practices don’t know this and often don’t know that a PIA is usually part of their professional college requirements and often even a legislated requirement! Prevent malicious errors, omissions or attacks that could result in fines and even jail time for the business, healthcare provider, employee, or vendor by completing a PIA.
If your Privacy Impact Assessment was written more than 2 years ago this e-course is for you
The Clinic Manager and Physician Lead and Privacy Officer must ensure its content is updated to reflect the current state of administrative, physical and technical controls.
BONUS! Checklist to update your PIA to meet recent changes to Alberta’s Netcare Portal. If your practice has completed a PIA and now you need to update the PIA, you receive a checklist of items that you need to consider to refresh your PIA.
If you a vendor that supports healthcare practices this e-course is for you
BONUS! One hour tele-consult with Jean, “Create a branded Privacy Impact Assessment Readiness Package”. Jean will work individually with you to review your documentation and coach you on how to prepare the package to give to healthcare practices.
BONUS! Vendor PIA live webinar includes Vendor non-disclosure agreement, Information Manager Agreement, GAP Analysis, Computer Network Narrative templates.
Jean has helped hundreds of physicians, chiropractors, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers complete their Privacy Impact Assessment. She has visited hundreds of practices across Canada. But time and geography limit my ability to visit each healthcare practice that needs a PIA. That’s why I developed this on-line interactive course to help you learn everything you need in order to review, amend, or create your own PIA. Each module includes a weekly live webinar, as well as templates, tools, resources and two common case studies to build on each week. You can use these scenarios to guide you through the PIA process.
You know your practice better than anybody else. If you had the right tools, at the time most convenient for you and a mentor to help you, you can develop good office practices, meet legislated and college requirements, and successfully complete your Privacy Impact Assessment requirements.
