Letter informs families of missing administrative forms

Ottawa—July 28, 2020—The following letter has been sent to parents of 67 clients of CHEO.

Please know that if you did not receive this letter, you are not affected.

Dear [Name],

At CHEO it is very important to us that we protect the privacy and confidentiality of your personal health information. It is the foundation of a trust that allows us provide the best care possible for you and your family. Keeping your information secure is a priority, and when we don’t meet our own high standards, we need to tell you why and what we’re doing about it. Unfortunately, that is why I am writing to you today.

It is our practice to shred administrative forms when we no longer need them. For example, consent forms for switching from paper to email communication, consent forms for videotaping sessions or referral forms. They are placed in a locked container and sent to a secure shredding service.

Last week we learned that a small box of such administrative forms, set aside in a locked room on our site on St. Laurent Boulevard, was not in fact sent to the shredding service. We thoroughly searched the offices and have interviewed anyone who might have been involved or had access to the location. We believe the files were inadvertently removed from our secure facility by a bonded, external cleaning company and taken to a paper recycling plant where they would have been destroyed and decomposed. However, because we cannot say with 100% certainty that this is exactly what happened, we have to consider them “lost or missing.” We want to make sure you’re aware of this, since administrative forms about your child’s care were in that box.

On behalf of CHEO, I offer you our sincerest apologies. We take very seriously our responsibility to keep your information safe and secure. This should not have happened.

We know the pandemic has been a stressful time for families, especially those who have children and youth with special needs. We are extremely sorry to have added to this stressful time.

As we continue with our investigation, if we learn anything that changes any of this information, we will be in touch with you.

I can assure you that, as part of our review of this matter, we are taking all necessary steps to prevent this from happening again. CHEO’s transition to being a fully digital health organization is designed, in part, to prevent this kind of thing from even being possible.

We have reported this incident to Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner. Should you wish, you can file a complaint with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. You can reach the Commissioner at:

Registrar, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
1400-2 Bloor St
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8
Tel: 1-800-387-0073

Again, I sincerely apologize for this breach of your privacy.   

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at the coordinates below or you may also contact Adrienne Sharp, Privacy and Access Team Lead at (613) 737-7600, ext. 4842, asharp@cheo.on.ca. 

Yours truly,

Monique Lugli,
Vice-President, Child Development and Community Services,
CHEO