1 Definitions
2 Information private and confidential
3 Assessment of care
4 General exceptions
5 Exceptions for operators
6 Exceptions for Minister
7 Appeal Board
8 Disclosure order
9 Repeal
10 Expiry
11 Coming into
force
Definitions
1 In this
Regulation,
(a) “Act” means the Ambulance Services Act;
(b) “information” means information that is
obtained in providing ambulance services by an operator or a person employed or
engaged by an operator;
(c) “legal representative” means
(i) an executor or administrator of the estate
of a deceased person,
(ii) the guardian or trustee of a dependent adult
under the Dependent Adults Act,
(iii) the guardian of a minor, or
(iv) an agent as defined in the Personal
Directives Act under a personal directive during any time that the maker of
the personal directive lacks capacity.
Information private and confidential
2 Every operator and
every person employed or engaged by an operator
(a) must treat information respecting a patient
as private and confidential, and
(b) may use or disclose information respecting a
patient only in accordance with the Act or this Regulation.
Assessment of care
3(1) For the purposes of
assessing the standards of prehospital care given to patients, improving
prehospital care procedures, compiling prehospital care statistics, conducting
prehospital care research, enforcing the Crown’s right of recovery under Part 5
of the Hospitals Act or for any other purpose considered by the Minister
to be in the public interest, the Minister or a person authorized by the
Minister may require an operator to send to the Minister or person authorized
by the Minister the following:
(a) prehospital care and other records relating
to a patient or extracts from or copies of those records;
(b) any other information in the custody or
control of an operator relating to a patient.
(2) The Minister and every
person employed or engaged by the Department of Health and Wellness who
receives information respecting a patient under subsection (1)
(a) must treat the information as private and
confidential,
(b) may use the information only for the
purposes in subsection (1), and
(c) may disclose the information only in
accordance with this Regulation or the Freedom of Information and Protection
of Privacy Act.
(3) The Minister or a person employed or engaged by the
Department of Health and Wellness who is authorized by the Minister may disclose
information respecting a patient for the purposes of enforcing the Crown’s
right of recovery under Part 5 of the Hospitals
Act.
AR
38/99 s3;206/2001
General exceptions
4 An operator, a
person employed or engaged by an operator, the Minister or a person employed or
engaged by the Department of Health and Wellness who is authorized by the
Minister may
(a) disclose information respecting a patient to
the patient or the patient’s legal representative;
(b) disclose information respecting a patient to
any person with the written consent of the patient or the patient’s legal
representative;
(c) disclose information relating to the patient
to any person without the written consent of the patient if
(i) the patient is not able to consent and does
not have a legal representative, and
(ii) in the opinion of the person making the
disclosure, it is in the best interests of the patient to disclose the
information;
(d) disclose to the Director of Medical Services
appointed under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, when requested to do so in writing
by the Director of Medical Services, information relating to an accident that
occurred in respect of the patient’s occupation or one or more of the patient’s
former occupations without the written consent of the patient;
(e) disclose to The Workers’ Compensation Board,
when requested to do so in writing by The Workers’ Compensation Board,
information relating to the patient that is required to establish
responsibility for payment by the Board without the written consent of the
patient.
AR
38/99 s4;206/2001
Exceptions for operators
5 An operator or a
person employed or engaged by an operator may disclose information respecting a
patient
(a) when the patient is taken to a facility, to
a person who is authorized by the facility to receive information relating to
patients;
(b) if the information is required to be
disclosed in the course of the administration of the Act;
(c) on the order of a court;
(d) to a medical examiner who is inquiring under
the Fatality Inquiries Act into the death of a person who was attended
to by an ambulance attendant;
(e) to a medical officer of health under the Public
Health Act;
(f) to the council of the College of Physicians
and Surgeons of the Province of Alberta or an investigating committee under the
Medical Profession Act or the Professional Conduct Committee or the
Appeals Committee under the Nursing Profession Act if
(i) an officer of the College or the Alberta
Association of Registered Nurses, as the case may be, makes a written request
for the information and the disclosure is consented to by the patient or the
patient’s legal representative, or
(ii) the disclosure is made in compliance with a
notice under section 59 of the Medical Profession Act or section 72 of
the Nursing Profession Act to attend as a witness or produce documents;
(g) if the disclosure is made in compliance with
a notice under section 38 of the Health Disciplines Act issued in the
course of a proceeding respecting the conduct of a person who is registered
under that Act;
(h) if required by law to do so.
AR
38/99 s5;251/2001;18/2004
Exceptions for Minister
6(1) The Minister
may disclose information received under section 3
(a) in statistical form if the identity of the
persons to whom the information relates is not revealed or made identifiable,
(b) to a person conducting research or a review,
if the disclosure is made in a manner that ensures the confidentiality of the
information,
(c) to a person who is authorized to receive it
under an agreement with the Minister, or
(d) for the purpose of administering the
programs funded by the Minister.
(2) A person who receives
information under subsection (1)(c) may use the information only for the
purpose for which it was provided under the agreement.
(3) Every person who
receives information under subsection (1)(d) must treat the information as
private and confidential.
Appeal Board
7 The Appeal Board
is entitled, for the purposes of performing its duties and exercising its
powers under the Act, to inspect and make copies of any information in the
possession of or under the control of an operator, the Registrar or the
Minister and to admit a copy of the information in evidence at an appeal under
the Act, but all proceedings related to the information must be held in
private.
Disclosure order
8(1) If an
operator, a person employed or engaged by an operator, the Minister or a person
employed or engaged by the Department of Health and Wellness who has
information respecting a patient refuses to disclose the information under
section 2 or 3 to the patient or to the patient’s legal representative, the
patient or legal representative may apply to a court for an order directing the
person who has the information to release it or a copy of it to the patient or
legal representative.
(2) An application under
subsection (1) must be made
(a) on motion in the course of any action or
proceeding to which the patient or the patient’s legal representative is a
party to a judge of the court in which the action or proceeding is taken, or
(b) by way of originating notice to the Court of
Queen’s Bench in any other case.
(3) An
application under subsection (1) must be heard in private and on the hearing of
the motion the onus of showing why the order should not be made for the release
of the records or information, or a copy of them, is on the respondent to the
motion.
AR
38/99 s8;206/2001
Repeal
9 The Confidentiality
Regulation (AR 372/93) is repealed.
Expiry
10 For
the purpose of ensuring that this Regulation is reviewed for ongoing relevancy
and necessity, with the option that it may be repassed in its present or an
amended form following a review, this Regulation expires on April 30, 2007.
AR
38/99 s10;18/2004
Coming into force
11 This Regulation
comes into force on March 1, 1999.
