Note: This article was originally published in our Spring 2019 edition of our On Call newsletter, and has not been updated.
Succession Planning to Help Prevent Abandoned Records
Abandonment of health records continues to be a problem in Ontario and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPCO) sent a letter to regulators on April 16, 2019 bringing attention to this issue. In response to numerous complaints regarding abandoned records, the IPCO developed a new fact sheet, Succession Planning to Help Prevent Abandoned Records that recommends, as a best practice, that health care professionals develop—and routinely review—their succession plan.
The IPCO recommends that a succession plan should be in place well before any changes in practice occurs as records are vulnerable to abandonment when there is a change in a health care professional’s practice. The consequences of abandoned records are far-reaching and can include a heightened risk of privacy breaches that may also deprive individuals of their right to access and correct their health records which in turn, can disrupt the continuity of care.
Access a copy of the Succession Planning to Help Prevent Abandoned Records fact sheet here.