Our hospital values accountability and transparency. In fact, we operate in one of the most demanding health care accountability systems in all of Canada. Almost every aspect of our hospital performance is subject to external, independent scrutiny.

Nevertheless, the hospital sector is committed to constantly improving transparency and accountability.

In 2009, hospitals (through the Ontario Hospital Association)asked the government to extend the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to hospitals, knowing it was one more way that our sector could demonstrate its deep and continuing commitment to transparency and accountability.

Ontario hospitals set out to have freedom of information legislation extended to their organizations as a way of engendering trust and public confidence among their communities.

The purpose of the freedom of information legislation is twofold:

• First, it provides a right of access to information that should be made public.
• Second, it protects the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information about themselves held by institutions and to provide individuals with a right of access to that information.

Our hospital, like all hospitals in Ontario, has been working very hard to prepare for the application of the FOI legislation to our sector. We have been working closely with the Ontario Hospital Association, the Government of Ontario, and the Information and Privacy Commissioner to implement the legislation and its required processes. All hospitals, ours included, have worked hard to prepare for this new era of accountability.

We believe in transparency and accountability, and to that end, we post a number of documents that may be of interest to our community. These include the President and CEO employment agreements, executive expenses, and minutes of board meetings.

We are very well prepared to handle and respond to any information requests that our community members may have.

Freedom of Information Request Form

Our FIPPA Coordinator will process any FOI requests made to the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital. The Coordinator will inform you what information is held by the organization and whether a formal request is required for the information, you want. The FIPPA Coordinator will also coordinate and monitor all policy and procedures, support staff training and awareness of FIPPA.