Legislation
Quality of Care Information Protection Act, 2016
The Quality of Care Information Protection Act, 2016 (QCIPA) allows health professionals to have open discussions about critical incidents involving patient care and quality improvement matters in general. The goal of QCIPA is to create a safe space for health professionals to talk openly about quality improvement, including the potential cause of any critical incidents, without fear that the information will be used against them.
QCIPA applies to hospitals, independent health facilities, long-term care homes, licensed medical laboratories and specimen collection centres.
The first version of QCIPA came into force in 2004 (QCIPA, 2004). In July 2014, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care initiated a review of QCIPA to identify areas for improvement. Health Quality Ontario convened a review committee and the committee gave its recommendations to the minister in December 2014. To respond to the committee's recommendations, the minister put forward legislation to repeal QCIPA, 2004 and replace it with QCIPA, 2016. The legislation was passed by the legislature and QCIPA, 2016 came into force on July 1, 2017.
QCIPA, 2016 enables health care providers to have protected quality improvement discussions to help improve patient safety while still ensuring that patients and their authorized representatives have access to the facts about a critical incident. QCIPA, 2016 increases transparency and maintains quality in Ontario's health care system by:
- Affirming the rights of patients to access information about their own health care
- Clarifying that facts about critical incidents cannot be withheld from affected patients and their families
- Requiring the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care to review QCIPA every five years
Resources
- QCIPA Review Committee Recommendations (PDF)
- Appendices to the review committee's report are available upon request. See contact information at bottom of page.
- Quality of Care Information Protection Act, 2016
- Regulation 965 under the Public Hospitals Act
- See ss.1, 2 and 19 for critical incident reporting, review, disclosure and record-keeping requirements.
- See also:
Programs and Services
