Your Privacy and Data

Disclaimer and Privacy Statement

This Disclaimer and Privacy Statement explain how:  

  • The Ottawa Hospital collects, protects, uses and shares information through The Ottawa Hospital website.
  • Governs data collection, usage, and services provided by third parties.
  • Applies to our website located at ottawahospital.on.ca (the “The Ottawa Hospital website”).

Personal information means any information that can be used to identify a specific person. It may include name, email address, postal or physical address, and other personally identifiable information.

Disclaimer

The Ottawa Hospital website is a Canadian website. Its content is intended for Canadian residents only.  

Residents of the European Union (“EU”), as well as other countries in Europe, may have additional rights with respect to individual personal information as provided under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

Information published on The Ottawa Hospital website is meant to inform and educate readers.

Information provided on this site is not medical advice. It is not meant to be used for diagnosis or treatment. Please talk to your doctor about whether the information on the website applies to you and your unique health needs. Your doctor can also help you make decisions about your treatment and/or medication.

The Ottawa Hospital and its staff and physicians are not responsible for any legal claims, costs, damages, liabilities, or obligations arising from the use or misuse of the material contained in this website. We do not guarantee or warrant the quality, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or suitability of the information provided. 

Reference to or mention of specific products, processes or services does not mean that The Ottawa Hospital recommends or endorses them.  

This site contains links to external or third-party websites. Links to other sites are provided as a reference to help you identify and locate other Internet resources that may interest you. Internet resources should not replace the advice of a qualified health care practitioner. We are not responsible for making sure that the information on the other sites is accurate or appropriate. We do not endorse the viewpoints expressed in other sites.

The Ottawa Hospital is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any third-party website. We encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on such sites, as well as any site you visit. 

If you received an email from us,

  1. your email address is either listed with us as someone who has expressly shared this address for the purpose of receiving information in the future (“opt-in”), or
  2. you have registered as a patient, donated or otherwise have an existing relationship with us.

We respect your time and attention by limiting how often we send out emails.

To stop getting email from us

If you have received unwanted, unsolicited email from The Ottawa Hospital or that appears to be from The Ottawa Hospital, please forward a copy of that email with your comments to feedback@toh.ca. If you wish to be removed from any of our contact lists, please contact our Department of Patient Relations at prelations@toh.ca or 613-798-5555 extension 13377. 

Privacy

The Ottawa Hospital is committed to ensuring that the personal health information of our patients and the personal information of our users are collected, used, and disclosed appropriately and safeguarded to ensure privacy. 

If you choose to provide The Ottawa Hospital with personal information through email or other means (e.g., in person, by phone), the information will be used only for the specific purposes for which it has been provided (e.g. to respond to a specific request, job application, etc.), or as otherwise allowed by law. 

We are continuously improving the user experience on our website so that visitors can easily and quickly find the information they want. To do this, we need to know what information visitors access most often. We may do this by tracking statistics such as IP address, browser type, domain name, access times and referring website addresses.

When you come to our website, the site will check which browser you are using (i.e. Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, etc.). The website will automatically show you the best version of the website for your browser. We do not link server log information to any other data in a way that would enable us to identify individual visitors.

The Ottawa Hospital website uses “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed in your web browser’s memory by a web server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or to deliver malicious software to your computer.

One of the main purposes of cookies is to make browsing more convenient for you. For example, if you personalize pages on The Ottawa Hospital website, or register for The Ottawa Hospital website services, a cookie saves your preferences for the next time you access the website.

This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the website later, the information you provided in the past can be retrieved, so you can easily use the features that you customized.

The Ottawa Hospital may also occasionally use cookies to facilitate the hospital’s patient care, research or other charitable initiatives.

You can choose to accept or decline the use of cookies from the website. Most web browsers (including Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari and Opera) are usually set to accept cookies by default, but you can modify your settings to decline them if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to experience fully the interactive features of The Ottawa Hospital’s website or other sites you may visit.

You can limit the collection of your information by disabling cookies on your browser. You may also be able to modify your browser settings to request your permission each time a website attempts to set a cookie. However, our website (and many other websites) rely on cookies to enable certain functionality. If you choose to disable cookies, some of the services available on our websites may not work properly. 

All information on The Ottawa Hospital website is copyrighted by The Ottawa Hospital or by other contributors. As a visitor to this site, you have a limited license to display or print the information provided for personal, non-commercial use only. You must not change the information and must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices. You are not allowed to reproduce, republish, or share in any way or in any form the information on our website without the prior written permission of an authorized representative of The Ottawa Hospital.

By using our website, you agree to the policies and terms outlined in this Statement. You also consent to our use of cookies as outlined in this Statement.

Accessibility

We are pleased to support the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (2005). If you would like information in a different format, please send your request to accessibility@toh.ca or call 613-737-8899 extension 75535 or 75303. We will work with you to create the format that is best for you.

For more information, see The Ottawa Hospital’s, Accessibility page. 

Changes to the Disclaimer and Privacy Statement

We may, at our sole discretion, occasionally make changes to this Statement. The effective date of the most recent Statement is noted at the bottom of this page. We encourage you to review this Statement from time to time so that you can stay informed about how we are committed to protecting the privacy of your information. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, or share the personal information that you have voluntarily provided, we will notify you by posting notice of the changes on this webpage.

By using The Ottawa Hospital website, you are agreeing with the terms of this Disclaimer and Privacy Statement. Your continued use of the website means that you accept any changes.

Updates

We will update this Disclaimer and Privacy Statement as needed. As a user of this website, it is your responsibility to check this Disclaimer and Privacy Statement regularly for changes. 

Contact us

If you have a question or concern about your privacy, please contact: 

The Ottawa Hospital Information and Privacy Office

613-739-6668

613-761-4740

infoprivacyoffice@toh.ca

Box 656  
1053 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, ON  K1Y 4E9

If you wish to make a complaint about The Ottawa Hospital privacy practices, please contact: 

the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

1-800-387-0073

www.ipc.on.ca

2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400
Toronto, ON  M4W 1A8