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Your Privacy – Our Commitment

At LifeLabs, we are committed to maintaining the highest standards of privacy, confidentiality and data security including the personal health information of our patients. This is fundamental to achieving our goal in providing enhanced patient care. LifeLabs has robust privacy policies, procedures and training in place that are in compliance with applicable privacy laws.
We will only collect, use and disclose your personal information lawfully and responsibly in order to provide our services to you.

Purpose of Collection, Use and Disclosure
of Your Personal Information

LifeLabs policies are governed by the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) in the province of Ontario, the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) in the province of British Columbia and the Health Information Protection Act (HIPA) in Saskatchewan.

Why We Collect and Use

LifeLabs only collects and uses the personal health information we require to provide our services to you. We collect and use your personal health information:
  • To verify your identity (e.g. when you visit one of our patient service centres, when you sign up for LifeLabs’ MyCareCompass portal)
  • To provide you with quality laboratory services
  • To match your specimens with your test results
  • To manage your account and provide you support when you contact our Customer Service Centre
  • To plan, evaluate and monitor the services we provide to you
  • For research, quality improvement activities (such as sending patient satisfaction surveys), or statistical analysis
  • To de-identify and effectively create anonymized data sets which may be sold in aggregated form to third parties for the purposes of health-related research
  • For any other purpose that may be identified to you before or at the time the information is collected
  • For purposes as mandated by law

Disclosure of Your Personal Health Information

We disclose your personal health information to:
  • Your ordering physician and members of your health care team who are copied on your requisition, often referred to as members within your “circle of care”
  • For the purpose of carrying out an investigation as a result of a court order, warrant, subpoena or summons or other purpose as permitted by law
  • To eliminate or reduce a significant risk of serious bodily harm to another person or group
  • For research purposes, subject to restrictions and conditions such as use of only certain set of data to meet a research objective
  • If permitted or prescribed by law

Privacy Policy

Enhanced patient care delivery depends on a relationship of trust between our clients and staff. At LifeLabs, we respect your rights to access your personal health information and we work to ensure that personal health information is kept confidential while in our care.

  • Accountability: We are accountable to protect and safeguard your personal health information we collect, use and disclose. LifeLabs ensures that current privacy policies and procedures established are compliant with privacy legislation. Our Privacy Office conducts annual privacy training for staff, and conducts ongoing audits of our staff access to your personal health information. Our Privacy Office is available to respond to your privacy questions or concerns.
  • Identifying Purposes: We will identify the purpose for which personal information is collected at or before the time the information is collected.
  • Consent: LifeLabs operates on the order of your health care provider; therefore, consent may be implied for some defined circumstances. For example, when you visit one of our patient service centres with a test requisition from your physician, we rely on your implied consent not only to carry out those tests but to collect, use and disclose your personal health information in order to share the results with your health care providers. LifeLabs also posts notices in our patient service areas to advise you of the purposes for which we collect, use and disclose your personal health information. In some instances, LifeLabs will obtain your express consent when we collect, use and disclose your personal health information.
  • Limiting Collection: LifeLabs will limit the collection of personal health information to that which is necessary for the authorized purposes identified. Information will be collected by fair and lawful means.
  • Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention: Personal health information will not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which the information is collected or as required or permitted by law.
  • Accuracy: Personal health information will be as accurate, complete and up-to-date as is necessary for the purpose for which it is to be used.
  • Safeguards: LifeLabs takes security measures to ensure your personal health information is protected from loss, theft, unauthorized access, use, copying or disclosure. As a health information custodian, we review and update our security measures to meet industry standards. We have implemented safeguards to protect your personal information and these include but are not limited to:
    Physical safeguards: locking filing cabinets and restricting access to our facilities to only authorized employees, vendors or visitors
    Technical safeguards: strong passwords, use of encryption, logging and monitoring, use of firewalls, anti-virus/anti-spyware software; threat risk assessments.
    Administrative safeguards: role-based access, annual staff training & signing of the confidentiality pledge, privacy impact assessments.
  • Openness: At LifeLabs, we have communications posted in our patient waiting areas to notify you about our current practices in place to protect your personal health information. To ensure quality of service, we can communicate with you via telephone, in person and e-mail. We are committed to safeguarding your personal health information irrespective of the method through which we communicate with you.
  • Individual Access: We offer our patients online access to their test results. Patients with access to the internet can register free of charge to our MyCareCompass portals to view their results. Not all test results are available on our portal; specifically, we don’t post those results that are sensitive in nature, controlled by regulatory requirements, sent to a government lab for analysis, or test results that are required to be reported directly to the ordering physician.
    If you require hardcopies of your results, please complete and return this Access Form.
    If you have additional questions regarding accessing your results, please call the Customer Care Centre in your Province:
    British Columbia: 604-431-7206, 1-800-431-7206
    Ontario: 1-877-849-3637
  • Challenging Compliance: You may address your question(s) or complaint(s) concerning our compliance with privacy legislation to the Privacy Office via:
    Confidential e-mail: Privacy@LifeLabs.com
    Telephone: 1-844-783-6677
    You also have the right to submit your complaint to the Privacy Commissioner in your Province. Please see our Privacy Legislation and Oversight Authorities tab for contact details.

Access Your Results

  • You can access your results online by registering at:
  • You can request hard copies of your results by submitting a request to our Customer Care Centre or by filling out the Access Request form.
    • British Columbia: 604-431-7206, 1-800-431-7206
    • Ontario: 1-877-849-3637
  • You can also contact your ordering physician to obtain your results

If you are in Saskatchewan, please contact your physician to receive a copy of your test results. LifeLabs only provides collection services in Saskatchewan and does not process the samples.

Request Corrections To Your Information

If you would like to request correction(s) to your personal/personal health information, please complete and return the Corrections request form.

 

Website Cookies

A note about the use of Web tools such as Cookies

Cookies are small files that a website or its service provider transfers to a computer’s hard drive through your browser (if permitted), enabling the site or service provider’s system to recognize your browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari) and capture and remember certain information, such as your browser type and address of the website from which you arrived from.

This helps us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity and it allows us to provide you with improved online services. We use cookies to temporarily store language and filter preferences on our site and web portals. This helps us understand visitor traffic to our sites, site interaction in order to offer a user-friendly experience and to recognize you when you return to our sites. 

We may contract with third party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors and record your browsing habits in order to improve our product and service offerings and customer service.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies by changing the settings in your browser. We note that if you turn cookies off, you will not have access to certain features on our sites that make your online experience more efficient and some of our services may not function properly.

Our Website may also use a technology called “tracer tags” or “Web Beacons”.  This technology allows us to understand which pages you visit on our Website. These tracer tags are used to help us optimize and tailor our Website for you and other future visitors to our Website.

Privacy Legislation and  Oversight Authorities

LifeLabs operates in two Canadian provinces: Ontario and B.C. Accordingly, we must comply with applicable provincial legislation as well as federal legislation. Our conduct in this regard is governed by the following laws and overseen by the following oversight authorities.

 

Ontario

Relevant legislation: Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) & Ontario Regulation 329/04

Overseen by: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC)

Phone:
Toll-free: 1-800-387-0073 
Toronto: 416-326-3333

Fax:  416-325-9195

TTY: 416-325-7539

Email:  info@ipc.on.ca

Mailing Address: 
Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario 
2 Bloor St. E., Suite 1400 
Toronto, ON  M4W 1A8

Website: www.ipc.on.ca

British Columbia

Relevant legislation: Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)

Overseen by: Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia

Phone:
Toll-free: 1-800-663-7867 
Victoria: 250-387-5629 
Vancouver: 604-660-2421

Fax:  250-387-1696

Email:  info@oipc.bc.ca

Mailing Address:
Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia 
P.O. Box 9038, Stn. Prov. Govt. 
Victoria, BC  V8W 9A4

Website: www.oipc.bc.ca   

What if I have a privacy concern or want to make a complaint?

We take your privacy concerns and complaints seriously. If you have a privacy concern or complaint, you can contact us directly at 1-844-783-6677 or via our confidential e-mail: privacy@lifelabs.com.

Please note that while the Privacy Office is here to discuss your privacy concerns and any privacy complaints you may have, we are not able to provide you with your lab results. To get your results electronically, please visit MyCareCompass. If you would like hard copies of your lab results, please contact our Customer Care Centre or complete and return the Access Request form.

  • British Columbia: 604-431-7206, 1-800-431-7206
  • Ontario: 1-877-849-3637

If I sign up for the LifeLabs MyCareCompassTM portal, will others be able to access my information online?

If you choose to sign up for MyCareCompassTM portal account, only you will have access to your personal health information on the website. MyCareCompassTM portal is a secure website that uses encryption technology and has strict password and security question rules. It is important that you do not share your password or security question answers with others. You should also make sure that you have logged-out of the system when you are finished viewing your results.

Can my family see my personal health information?

Although you have the right to access your information, this right does not automatically extend to family members and/or friends. Once LifeLabs receives your consent to share your personal health information with your family member and/or friend, that individual will receive access.

Can all LifeLabs staff access my personal health information?

Only LifeLabs staff involved in your care can access your record. All LifeLabs staff are bound by a strict confidentiality agreement, which is signed as a condition of employment and re-attested to annually. The purpose of this agreement is to ensure staff know that they are only allowed to access information that is required to perform their duties. Staff access to patient records is monitored to ensure that the privacy of your information is respected. 

Ontario

Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA): https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/04p03

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario: https://www.ipc.on.ca/?redirect=https://www.ipc.on.ca/

 British Columbia

 Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA):  http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03063_01

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/

 Saskatchewan

 The Health Information Protection Act: http://www.publications.gov.sk.ca/details.cfm?p=4523

 Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner: https://oipc.sk.ca/

Changes to the LifeLabs Privacy Policies and Procedures

LifeLabs reserves the right to make changes to our privacy policies and procedures from time to time. Changes adopted will apply to any personal health information we maintain about you. LifeLabs is required to abide by the terms of our notice currently in effect. When changes are applied, we will promptly update this notice and post the information on the LifeLabs website. Please review this site periodically to ensure that you are aware of any such updates.

Privacy Office Contact

Telephone: 1-844 – 783 – 6677
E-mail: Privacy@LifeLabs.com