Privacy Policy

PCMCH is a provincial program, hosted by the Hospital for Sick Children, that is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC). PCMCH is accountable for meeting set deliverables and abiding by provincial policies as is articulated in the Hospital Service Accountability Agreement between the Hospital for Sick Children and MOHLTC.

Thank you for visiting the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health (PCMCH) website and reviewing our Privacy Policy. PCMCH provides this website service to support our mission of improving the delivery of maternal child health care services by building provincial consensus regarding standards of care, leading practices and priorities for system improvement.

What this Privacy Policy Covers

PCMCH is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal information in an online environment. This policy is intended to help you understand how PCMCH collects, uses and safeguards the information collected on our website. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the use or disclosure of information that is collected or obtained through means other than this website. This privacy policy does not apply to the practices of other organizations that contribute content for PCMCH website, or of persons that PCMCH does not employ or manage, including any third-party websites to which PCMCH website links.

Acceptance of this Privacy Policy and Changes

PCMCH may at any time, without notice to you and in its sole discretion, amend this Privacy Policy. Please review this policy periodically. Your continued use of PCMCH website after any such amendments signifies your acceptance thereof.

Collection and Use of Non-Personal Information

When you browse the PCMCH website, we use industry-standard web analytics services to collect limited amounts of standard information for traffic monitoring and statistical purposes. The information is analyzed in aggregate by our staff to identify operational trends, performance issues and ways to improve user experience.

Standard information captured could include:

  • Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computers being used to access our sites;
  • the operating systems and the types and versions of browsers used to access our sites;
  • the dates and times users access our sites;
  • the pages visited; and
  • the key words users enter into our search engine.
  • As a general practice, PCMCH and our analytics service providers do not connect this non-personal data to any personal information collected from you.

You can opt-out of analytics activity without a significant impact on your browsing experience. Google currently offers a free Google Analytics opt-out tool for Internet Explorer (versions 7 and 8), Google Chrome (4.x and higher), and Mozilla Firefox (3.5 and higher). For further instructions, please consult your browser’s Help Menu.

Collection and Use of Personal Information

PCMCH only obtains personal information such as your name, phone number, e-mail or place of employment if you choose to:

  • submit an e-mail, comment, question or request or subscribe for information online
  • request a service, product or information
  • provide feedback, participate in polls or surveys online

Any information collected on the website will be used by PCMCH only for the purpose stated at the time of collection. Specifically, if you choose to provide us with personal information in an email we use that information to: acknowledge and respond to your message; to send you information that you have requested; or to deal with your inquiry, complaint or concern.

Only those who ask to be added to PCMCH e-distribution list or who ask for information from PCMCH will receive e-mail communications from PCMCH. PCMCH advisory committee members and work group members may be automatically added to PCMCH e-mail lists or certain other private lists if PCMCH has an e-mail address for the member. E-mail addresses may be removed from PCMCH distribution lists at any time by following the applicable opt-out procedure specified in the list welcome message or by contacting the PCMCH info@pcmch.on.ca.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

The content of your message and your email address will not be disclosed to anyone except PCMCH staff or PCMCH partners who need the information in order to respond to your message. Unless otherwise stated at the time of collection, PCMCH will not sell or transfer your personal information to any other party without your approval, except that PCMCH reserves the right to disclose such personal information if such disclosure is made pursuant to a legal proceeding or otherwise required by law provided that PCMCH shall provide you with notice of any such disclosure.

All remarks, suggestions, ideas, graphics and other information (other than your personal information) communicated to PCMCH through this website will forever be the property of PCMCH unless otherwise noted. You acknowledge that you are responsible for whatever material you submit to this website, and you, not PCMCH, have full responsibility for the message, including its legality, reliability, appropriateness, originality, and copyright.

PCMCH may otherwise disclose your personal information when:

  • We have your express consent to share the information for a specified purpose;
  • We need to respond to subpoenas, court orders or such other legal process;
  • We need to protect the personal safety of the users of our website or defend the rights or property of PCMCH;
  • We find that your actions on our websites violate the PCMCH website Terms & Conditions or any of our usage guidelines for specific products or services we provide.

Access to Your Personal Information

At your request, PCMCH will provide reasonable access to your personal information submitted via this website and held by PCMCH. If you identify your incorrect personal information in our possession, PCMCH will correct or delete that information in accordance with the your direction, to the extent that such updating and/or correction will not compromise PCMCH’s privacy or security interests, subject to the understanding that, due to backups, it may be impossible to completely delete your personal information. Such requests will be fulfilled within a reasonable time and no later than 30 days following the request.

Further Questions

If you have questions or suggestions about the website in general, please e-mail us at website@pcmch.on.ca

In the event of questions about these Terms & Conditions, our Privacy Policy or any matters related to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, please call the Hospital for Sick Children Privacy Information Line at 416-813-7474 or e-mail at privacy.office@sickkids.ca