A Joliette pharmacist received a two-month disbarment for consulting personal information about an ex-spouse and two of his acquaintances in the Quebec Health File (DSQ), without any justification.
Until December, Michael Guay was co-owner of a pharmacy affiliated with Uniprix, rue Papineau, in Joliette. Between November 2020 and September 2022, he consulted medical data on his former partner 38 times. However, she was no longer his client, notes the decision of the Disciplinary Council of the Order of Pharmacists of Quebec.
Guay also admitted to having consulted the medical files of two other people, acquaintances of his ex, who were never customers of his pharmacy.
As is always the case in this type of decision, an order from the Disciplinary Council prohibits the naming of the three victims of these indiscretions.
The one who filed a complaint against Michael Guay worked in his pharmacy from 2017 to 2020, then had a fleeting “sentimental relationship” with him in 2021. They then continued to communicate on social networks.
In 2022, the complainant began to suspect that Mr. Guay was consulting her medical information and she requested the list of access to her data in the DSQ, a right guaranteed by law.
“She receives the access report and notes that the respondent accesses her file and her confidential information on numerous occasions,” mentions the Disciplinary Council.
During a meeting with her in November 2022, the complainant also admitted “having already left his DSQ key on his workstation and having left his password with pharmacy employees”.
This USB key, which provides access to the medical data of Quebecers, must however be used exclusively by its owner.
Still at work
The rules of the Order prohibit a member from working as a pharmacist or owning a pharmacy while disbarred. The Press was nevertheless able to reach Michael Guay by calling his establishment.
PHOTO FROM UNIPRIX WEBSITE
Michael Guay
He says he works “as a laboratory assistant”. “I am not currently an owner. » He claims to have transferred his shares to his partner, Gaétan Couillard.
Why did you allow yourself to consult your ex’s files for no professional reason? “I leave it to justice,” Guay simply replied.
At the Order, communications director Julie Villeneuve confirms that deregistered pharmacists can work as laboratory assistants, since this profession “is not regulated”.
The Press contacted the owner of the pharmacy, Gaétan Couillard, to find out if Mr. Guay would become a shareholder of the establishment again at the end of his deregistration period next month. “We are not going to come back to that, everything has been said,” he simply declared, before hanging up.
“Derogation from honor”
In its decision, the Council deplores the “act derogatory to the honor and dignity of the profession” of Mr. Guay.
The Council adds that members of the public “have the right to expect that their personal health information will remain confidential and inaccessible, unless such consultation is necessary to obtain services relating to their health.”
Violations of medical confidentiality galore
In addition to the Quebec Health Record, medical staff have access to patient health data through the computer systems of hospitals and pharmacies.
In May 2023, The Press revealed the extent of violations of the fundamental right to medical confidentiality committed in Quebec.
The investigation showed that the Quebec Ministry of Health does not know the extent of the problem, unlike Ontario and Alberta.
On Tinder… then in the DSQ
In 2023, five pharmacists were sanctioned for having committed indiscretions in the Quebec Health File, according to public documents. Thus, in Cowansville, a pharmacist went into the system to find out about three potential relationships unearthed on the Tinder dating network, in 2018 and 2019.
Salamicha Poirier was thus disbarred for two months.
“She was not the treating pharmacist of these three users and consulted their files in the context of friendly and romantic meetings, presumably to check the state of the physical and psychological health of her potential companions,” summarizes the decision of the ‘Professional Order of Pharmacists of Quebec, issued in May 2023.
Salamicha Poirier was also disbarred for two months in 2022, for searching through an ex’s medical file. As the actions took place during the same period, the Council however considered that there was no history when she received her last sanction.
What is the Quebec Health Record?
It is a centralized file containing medical information about all patients, such as their prescribed medications and laboratory test results. Health professionals have access to it, but they must have clinical reasons to consult it.