About eCHN

eCHN is dedicated to using electronic records to enable the sharing of patient health information among health care providers. The Province of Ontario's Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) establishes rules concerning the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Health Information by Health Information Custodians, such as hospitals.

Under PHIPA, eCHN is defined as both an “agent” of the Health Information Custodian and a “Health Information Network Provider”.

eCHN is committed to protecting the privacy of patient information in accordance with PHIPA, as well as with the Canadian Standards Association's Ten Principles for the Protection of Personal Information.

The Ten Principles are as follows:

  1. Accountability for Personal Health Information
  2. Identifying the Purposes of Personal Health Information
  3. Consent for the Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Health Information
  4. Limiting the Collection of Personal Health Information
  5. Limiting the Use, Disclosure and Retention of Personal Health Information
  6. Accuracy of Personal Health Information
  7. Safeguards for Personal Health Information
  8. Openness about the Management of Personal Health Information
  9. Individual Access and Amendment of Personal Health Information
10. Challenging compliance

PHIPA, 2004 defines patient consent as "implied consent", allowing health information custodians to share personal health information with each other. However, parents are free to revoke consent for the release of patient health information to eCHN from any member site. They may also revoke consent from any member site for access to the information that already exists in the eCHN repositories.

eCHN treats the personal health information of patients with respect and the utmost confidentiality, operating with the highest level of security safeguards in place. Precautions are taken to protect patient health information from unauthorized access, modification, use, disclosure and disposal, as well as from theft and loss. eCHN data are encrypted and travel through a secure private network. Only authorized health care professionals involved in a specific child’s “circle of care” can gain access to the patient’s chart and a rigorous audit system keeps track of  who signs in and why. eCHN also takes steps to ensure that patient information is being used with the sole purpose of supporting the provision of health care to patients. Data posted on eCHN are not available to any government or private organization and are not used for research purposes.