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Legal and Privacy

Fun with Custom Tables: Consent

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As mentioned in a previous article, there are some challenges in HIFIS 4 regarding the ability of users to keep track of who they're allowed to talk to about the client.

There's a Consent module in HIFIS which is really intended to keep track of whether the client has consented for you to store their data in HIFIS. This is a bit of a weird assumption for some communities, who point out that it could be potentially redundant. If staff are well trained and they're getting informed consent from al…

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Waterloo's Privacy and Consent Training Video

Data sharing is great, but it's also hard to balance the need to protect clients' privacy against the potential benefits of an open system. And it's even harder to figure out the right language to communicate with staff, so that they're comfortable with the consent conversations they need to have with their clients. 

The Region of Waterloo did a great job of making a short (5-minute) video that they use to train their staff about privacy and consent in the context of HIFIS 4.

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A Primer on Limiting Access to Client Files

Client-Search

One of the pillars of protecting client information is making sure that the only people accessing a client's information are the people that need that information to be able to serve the client.  A previous article discussed limiting user access to files via attestation, but that's not the only tool in your toolbox.

Service Provider Visibility Settings 

A shelter that only serves adult men does not need to be able to access client files for women and children, and they probably don't need to a…

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A Primer on Attestation in HIFIS 4

As previously discussed, client privacy is a key concern for communities using HIFIS 4. One of the approaches to protect client privacy is to restrict who has access to a given client file.

A tool that HIFIS 4 provides to support this approach is called Attestation.  It's one of multiple tools that can be made use of, but it's simple to set up.

Attestation

When Attestation is active, when an agency first serves a client, someone from that agency needs to Attest that they are in fact serving t…

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A Primer on Consent in HIFIS 4

Client privacy is a primary concern for a number of communities who are considering using HIFIS 4.

It can be quite a challenge to understand the legal implications of what communities should be doing and should not be doing on this front, but here is a good resource to understand Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Many Provinces and Territories also have their own regulations, but they are frequently modeled after PIPEDA.

In general though, you can …

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Video: Sharing Service Information in HIFIS 4


Transcription: 


Hi, this is Ali from ACRE Consulting, here to show you a little bit about how information is shared between service providers in HIFIS 4, and what your options are for customization. 

The first thing that's important to understand is the difference between client information and service-related information. 

Client Information 

Client information, like contributing factors are not impacted by the service provider that a user is logged in at. It doesn't matter who firs…

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