Virtual care

The OMA strongly encourages all members to leverage virtual care, when appropriate.

Obtaining patient consent

Unless you are using virtual care technologies where consent from the patient is handled at sign-up, you should ask patients for their consent.

Information vetted by OMA and OntarioMD legal teams and the CMPA has been created to make this easier. OMA legal has prepared a short paragraph statement and information to provide to patients to initiate a virtual care patient encounter which has also been vetted by the CMPA.

For further information on professional responsibilities related to virtual care, please see the CPSO Policy on Telemedicine and the CPSO COVID-19 FAQs for physicians.

Virtual care privacy guidance

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has developed considerations to ensure the protection of patient health information in providing virtual care. The guidance recalls the key requirements in the Personal Health Information Protection Act relevant to all custodians and provides practical steps custodians should take to protect personal health information, particularly as they plan and deliver virtual health care. The final version of the guidance captures input provided by the OMA.

Please also note the Information Privacy Commissioner has indicated that in a public health crisis, it is understandable that health professionals, may need to send or receive information by phone, text, email or other messaging services.