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Effective Nov. 1, 2023, clients and families, visitors, vendors and staff are required to wear a mask while moving throughout the hospital, including while in elevators, in spaces where clients receive care or participate in research. A medical grade mask will be available upon entry.

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Why we ask about custody and access at Holland Bloorview

gavel on a table

Dear Parent/Legal Guardian,

At Holland Bloorview, we strive to provide the best and safest care possible to your child. In order to best support your child and family, it is important for us to collect certain information from you, so all service providers know how to best communicate with you and understand how you make decisions for your child. In order for this to happen, we will ask you for the following:

Administrative & Legal Issues

Please provide the Hospital with a copy of the most current legal agreement and/or court order regarding custody and access.

It is your responsibility to provide the most current legal agreement and/or court order regarding custody and access information when a referral is made or when an appointment is booked. Our staff will ask you questions like: who your child lives with, who makes health care decisions and who to call for appointments. This will allow us to serve you in the best way possible.

The Hospital does not take sides in custody disputes. Please do not engage our staff in these disputes. Staff will not provide letters of support for family court regarding custody or parenting. It is the duty of the staff to focus on the health of your child and only issue documents related to caring for the health of your child.

If staff have significant concerns about a parent/legal guardian’s ability to care for their child, they will report their concerns to the Children’s Aid Society, as required by law.

Appointments & Information Sharing

It is the responsibility of the parent/legal guardian who schedules the child’s ongoing hospital appointments to share this information with the other parent. If this is not possible due to legal reasons, please share with your clinician.

Parents/legal guardians should ensure that the hospital receives the address for the primary residence of the child (primary residence means the address where the child lives most of the time).

We encourage all parents/legal guardians to be with their children while they are inpatients as well as during clinic visits. If this is not possible, then it is the responsibility of the attending parent to share the information with the parent who is not able to attend, unless otherwise required by law.

Visiting the Hospital

It is essential that the child’s hospital experience be supportive, informative, and as stress-free as possible. To achieve this goal, we would encourage parents/legal guardians to use hospital stays and clinic visits to focus on the well-being of their child. Disagreements between parents/legal guardians should be discussed outside of the hospital property.

The primary legal responsibility of Holland Bloorview is to provide high quality, safe and effective care to your child. Parents who cannot visit their child at the same time, either by court order, or by choice, are asked to work out reasonable arrangements for access by the other parent using the current guidelines.

Thank you for your co-operation to help us achieve the best outcomes for all patients and their families.