PHIPA DECISION 263

This matter arises from a community health centre’s report to the IPC about the publication of a magazine article describing the experiences of an unnamed child involved in the child welfare system. The centre identified the child as a recipient of its services, and the article’s author as the partner of a centre employee who provided health care services to the child. The centre asserts that through her involvement in the article, the employee breached the child’s privacy, in violation of the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA).
In this decision, the adjudicator finds that the employee breached PHIPA through the improper use of the child’s personal health information in the custody or control of the centre, for purposes unrelated to her duties as an agent of the centre. The resulting magazine article does not contain identifying information of the child that qualifies as “personal health information” within the meaning of PHIPA; as a result, its publication was not a disclosure of personal health information to the broader public. In the circumstances, which include the employee’s departure from the centre, the adjudicator declines to make any orders. However, she recommends some changes to the centre’s information practices to address some gaps, including around its agents’ publication of client information.