Introduction
As part of the provincial government’s commitment to ensure all New Brunswickers can access the health care they need, when and where they need it, NB Health Link will provide you and your immediate family with online, phone and/or in-person access to care while you wait to be placed with a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
The NB Health Link network of health care professionals will be able to treat many common medical conditions in either official language, virtually, by phone or in-person. They will also be able to prescribe medications, order tests and make referrals for specialized care.
Our commitment
NB Health Link is committed to protecting your privacy and security at all times by adhering to all applicable privacy and security legislation including the Personal Health Information Privacy and Access Act and the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, as well as policies, procedures and best practices and being open and transparent.
Our solution provider, Telus, has implemented reasonable information security practices to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information they collect and maintain on behalf of the NB Health Link program and are subject to the current standards on the protection of privacy and virtual health.
Your role
Although we have made every effort to ensure the security of the applications and the personal information they contain, you can increase their level of protection by following the guiding principles in the Terms of Use and ensuring your personal computer, mobile device, home internet and/or WI-FI connection are secure and for which NB Health Link is not responsible.
What information will be collected and why is this information collected
The service will collect and store both patient demographic information and clinical health records resulting from patient virtual or in-person encounters with a primary care practitioner.
Patient demographic information includes a patient’s name, address, New Brunswick Medicare number, date of birth, email address, telephone number.
Clinical health records includes referrals, orders for imaging tests and lab tests, prescriptions, clinical results, clinician’s notes.
Why is this information collected:
- To create a unique patient profile, to validate your identity and to associate your identity with your personal health information.
- To provide one central point of access to the patient health record, ensuring that the primary care provider has the relevant and necessary information to deliver the most appropriate care to the patient.
This information is considered personal health information and is protected under the applicable privacy legislation.
In addition, the following information concerning your access to the applications is collected, such as IP address (for geolocation only), Device type, Operating system, Browser type and version and pages visited. This information is collected for security purposes, to customize the service, to improve our services, to conduct research, for service announcements or administrative messages. This information is automatically collected and is not considered personal information (does not link to individuals).
How do we collect
- Directly from you, when you voluntarily register with NB Health link.
- Directly from your health care providers.
- Indirectly each time you sign into NB Health Link. This information is received and recorded in the audit logs.
Consent
By providing us with your personal information, we shall assume that consent towards the use and disclosure continues for the purpose for which the information is collected, until there is an express withdrawal of such consent. Consent may be sought electronically (e.g. on our website/ web application, through checkboxes on web forms or other disclaimer statements), or orally (e.g. telephonically or in person) or in writing (e.g. by signing a form or checking a box on a form).
Consent shall be deemed not required in situations authorized by law. These may include instances of ongoing legal proceedings, emergencies threatening life, health and/or safety, or when personal information exists in the public domain.
In some cases, you acknowledge and agree that information may be accessible to external parties (such as third-party technical service providers, hosting providers, IT companies, communications agencies) that we engage to provide certain administrative services in support of the NB Health Link program and operations.
Confidentiality
We limit access to personal health information about you to our health care professionals; health and technical support staff who, as part of their job, need to know and access that information to provide services to you. We have physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect personal information about you.
Security
NB Health Link has made reasonable security arrangements to protect your personal health information against such risks as unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure or disposal of it. In addition, security measures are integrated into the design, implementation and daily operating practices.
Cookies
NB Health Link uses cookies to understand how this online portal is used in order to help us improve your overall online experience. A cookie is a small text file placed on your hard drive (with your permission) by a web page server. Cookies are used by these websites to identify return visits to a web page but are not used to collect statistical or personal information. You may change the settings on your web browser to deny cookies or warn you of the deposit of cookies.
Contact Information
For questions or suggestions about privacy, or if you have a complaint or concern about your personal health information, please contact the Medavie Health Services New Brunswick Privacy and Information Access Officer:
1-506-872-6500 (Local)
1-888-862-2111 (Toll Free)
If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, please contact the New Brunswick Ombud’s Office:
Changes to this statement
We may amend this statement from time to time. If we make any substantial changes we will notify users by posting a prominent announcement on the appropriate application (s).