Organizations operating in Ontario Health West Region that provide direct healthcare to their patients are eligible to be approved as a Participant in ClinicalConnect. The legal entity must comply with the ClinicalConnect Terms & Conditions, and the individual submitting the Participation Agreement must have the authority to bind the organization to the ClinicalConnect Participation Agreement.

Additional information about ClinicalConnect is available in other parts of the ClinicalConnect Information website. Physicians are also able to apply for access to ClinicalConnect as Sole Practitioner Participants, and should click here for information related to their application process. 

About ClinicalConnect: ClinicalConnect provides electronic access to your patients’ health information from all acute care hospitals, regional cancer programs and LHINs’ Home & Community Care Services in south west Ontario. In addition, healthcare organizations that have the necessary agreement(s) in place with Ontario Health can be enabled with access to view their patients’ data from the following provincial data repositories:

•    Acute and Community Care Clinical Data Repository (acCDR) consolidates patient data across selected hospitals and all 14 LHIN-HCC services. Learn more here.
•    Diagnostic Imaging Common Service (DI Common Service) provides access to diagnostic images and corresponding reports from hospitals and independent health facilities. Learn more here.
•    Digital Health Drug Repository (DHDR) includes data and information from Ontario publicly-funded drugs and pharmacy services including Ontario Drug Benefits (ODB), OHIP+, Narcotics Monitoring System (NMS). Learn more here. 
•    Ontario Laboratories Information System (OLIS) provides access to lab test orders and results from hospitals, community labs and public health labs. Learn more here.

Please read the following to familiarize yourself with the application process. It’s expected that all steps to be approved as a Participant Organization are to be completed within a total of 90 calendar days, to help ensure a smooth onboarding process. Failure to complete the steps within the expected timeframe may result in the organization’s Participation Agreement being withdrawn.

Step 1: When you are ready and have time to complete the Participation Agreement in its entirety (estimated time requirement is 10-15 minutes), you may begin your submission online by clicking here: Participation Agreement (click here to view a tip sheet for completing the Agreement).

Step 2: The ClinicalConnect Program Office will review the Participation Agreement and assuming requirements thus far are satisfactorily fulfilled, the Privacy Contact designated in the Participation Agreement will receive instructions by email regarding their next steps, which are summarized below. However, please note a representative of the ClinicalConnect Program Office will be in touch with the Privacy Contact to support completion of these forms/activities, which must be completed within 30 calendar days. 

• Privacy Pre-Assessment (click to view a working copy of the Privacy Pre-Assessment, but note an electronic, editable copy will be sent to the Privacy Contact to edit/review/approve). 
• Privacy Notice (your organization's Privacy Notice must be submitted with your Pre-Assessment)
• Certificate of Insurance (your organization's Certificate of Insurance must be submitted with your Pre-Assessment. A summary of the insurance requirements to be a Participant in ClinicalConnect is available by clicking here).  

During this stage, the ClinicalConnect Program Office will also provide support to faciliate your organization's completion of Ontario Health's Client Information Form, and provisioning of a ONE ID credential for the Privacy Contact, when required.  

Step 3: The ClinicalConnect Program Office will review the Privacy Pre-Assessment and assuming the requirements are satisfactorily fulfilled, the Privacy Contact will be notified by email to complete two components described below. A username and password will be provided to access both systems identified below. It is expected that these two components be completed within 60 days of the Organization's Privacy Contact receiving their username/password.

• Privacy Contact eLearning Orientation. This ~70-minute orientation is made up of two eLearning modules which cover the role of the ClinicalConnect Privacy Contact, privacy-related obligations as a Participant, as well as how to use the Haystack iS online surveillance and auditing tool. The orientation must be completed using the HITS Digital Health Learning Management System before the organization will be approved as a Participant in ClinicalConnect.
• Privacy & Security Attestation (click to view a working copy of the Privacy & Security Attestation, but note that the Attestation must be completed using the Access Governance System (AGS)).

Please be advised that by this stage, the ClinicalConnect Program Office, on your organization's behalf, will have submitted some entries from your Participation Agreement (Step 1) to Ontario Health. Ontario Health will assess your organization's eligibility to be authorized to view data from provincial repositories listed above, and arrange directly with your organization to have requisite agreements/activities completed, so the ClinicalConnect Program Office may enable access to repository data if/as your organization is approved as a Participant in ClinicalConnect.

Step 4: Upon submission of all required documentation, and completion of the Privacy Contact eLearning Orientation:

• The application, including all required documentation as outlined above, will be reviewed by the ClinicalConnect Program Office.
• The Organization's Legal Signing Authority and Privacy Contact will be notified by email with a decision of their approval or denial to become a ClinicalConnect Participant.
• From here, the Organization's Legal Signing Authority will be prompted to appoint one or more Local Registration Authorities (LRAs) for their organization using the Access Governance System (AGS). LRAs are responsible for the ongoing management of ClinicalConnect user accounts for the organization.
  • Once appointed by the Legal Signing Authority, LRAs will receive instructions by email to complete a two-part orientation to the role; Part 1 is an eLearning module, and Part 2 is a series of interactive, training modules that teach LRAs how to use the Access Governance System. LRAs are expected to fully complete the orientation within 60 calendar days of being appointed to the role. 
  • Once the LRA Orientation is complete, LRAs can then also use AGS to provision access to ClinicalConnect for their organization's end users.

Legal Signing Authorities should note the following system/internet browser requirements when submitting the ClinicalConnect Participation Agreement (an online form):

Minimum system requirements if completing Participation Agreement on mobile devices: