The eHR Programme is a territory-wide programme to enhance the continuity of care of patients by the sharing of patients’ electronic health records amongst participating healthcare providers in Hong Kong. The Hospital Authority (“HA”) is the technical agency for the Government of the Hong Kong SAR in the development and implementation of IT systems related to the eHR Programme.
eHR HK Limited, a subsidiary of HA, is to hold, maintain, license and grant permission to use the intellectual property rights and assets related to the eHR Programme as agreed by the Government.
eHR Secure Connect (“eSC”) is an authentication and connection tool with client ecertificate issued by us as healthcare service location identification (“Certificate”), which is designed to facilitate the private healthcare providers to connect, access and upload information to the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (“eHealth”) by web browser via the Internet. One Certificate will be issued in respect of each of your healthcare service location(s) registered with eHealth. In order to use eHealth, you are required to login using login username and password and your selected second factor authentication means, e.g. SMS One-Time Password. Any reference made to eSC shall, unless specified, include all its versions, updates and fixes (if any) that are provided to you or notified to you from time to time.
Your use of eSC is subject to the terms and conditions set out herein (“Terms”). By accessing the eHealth established by HA on behalf of Government via eSC, you accept and agree to be bound by the Terms. For purposes of these Terms, “we”, “us” or “our” means eHR HK Limited and its successors and assigns; “you” or “your” means the person to whom eHR HK Limited issues the Certificate and grants the connection activity.
The Certificate is issued to you gratis and is non-exclusive and non-transferable. It is for internal use by you and your partner, staff, agents and sub-contractors who have a need to connect to the eHealth during the Term (except as otherwise permitted with our prior written consent) and is issued solely for the purpose of allowing you to connect, access and upload information to the eHealth. In these Terms, the term “partners” refers to natural persons with whom you carry on your business (of a hospital or clinic) in common with a view to profit and who are directly involved in providing medical services to patients pursuant to such business.
Once your registration with eHealth has been accepted, you will be invited via email to complete the installation of eSC by logging into the eHealth Registration for Healthcare Provider. The password for downloading the Certificate installer will be sent to you separately via email. You have to log into the eHealth Registration for Healthcare Provider to open the installer, read the installation guide with instructions on how to download and save the Certificate(s) at each healthcare service location.
You (or if you are a hospital or clinic, the doctors within your medical practice) are responsible (and we are not) for the treatment of your patients and this includes ensuring that the results are properly interpreted. You acknowledge that eSC is only an authentication and connection tool with client e-certificate for you to connect, access and upload information to the eHealth and facilitate the operation of your hospital or clinic. Accordingly:
you must only use eSC at the designated healthcare service location that has been registered under eHealth;
you must implement, and maintain the implementation of, the security measures relating to the eHealth which are prescribed from time to time by us or the eHR Office of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR (or any successor body);
you must immediately inform us if you are aware of or have grounds to suspect any unauthorised or unlawful use of the eSC; and
you (or if you are a hospital or clinic, the doctors within your medical practice) are solely responsible (and we are not) for patient data entered and processed, results obtained and inferences and conclusions drawn from the use of eSC.
You acknowledge and agree that neither we nor the HA warrant that the Certificate (or, where relevant, the user guide):
is error-free, accurate or complete or will achieve any results intended by you;
will be compatible with your IT systems, hardware and/or software;
will operate without interruption, error or virus infection;
will process data or provide information or results accurately.
You acknowledge and agree that any liability to you and/or your patients, partners, staff, agents or sub-contractors for any loss or damage suffered in relation to the use of eSC (other than death or personal injury resulting from negligence) is disclaimed by us and the HA to the fullest extent permissible by law. We hold the benefit of Clause 3(a) and this Clause 3(b) on trust for the HA.
All conditions, warranties or other terms which might be implied by law, are excluded to the fullest extent permissible, including but not limited to, any implied warranties as to title, quality, fitness for purpose or the use of reasonable skill and care in respect of the design, creation or compilation of eSC or any user guide.
You acknowledge that eSC comprises works owned by us, including computer programs, software code, preparatory materials and documentation (such as manuals, guidelines and instructions relating to its operation) (“Developed Works”).
You acknowledge that:
we own the intellectual property rights in the Developed Works (including the Certificate and all information thereon) and such rights shall remain vested in us; and
you have no rights in eSC other than the right granted under these Terms.
You must not, nor permit or procure any third party to, deal with any intellectual property
(such as to reproduce, adapt, modify, alter, distribute, reverse engineer or create derivative work) in respect of the Developed Works in whole or in part without our prior written consent and in compliance with any conditions we may impose.
You must indemnify us, the HA, all committees (and their members) established by the HA, and our and the HA’s employees, officers and agents including their successors in title and assigns (collectively the “Indemnified Parties”) against any loss, liability or cost arising out of any claim or demand made by a third party against you, any of your partners, staff, agents, sub-contractors or any Indemnified Party, resulting from a breach by you of these Terms or for your infringement or alleged infringement of intellectual property in respect of or relating to the Developed Works.
You must comply with and require that any person to whom you pass personal data to agree to comply with, and ensure that all your partners, staff, agents and sub-contractors comply with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486).
You must, at our request, supply us with a list of all your partners, staff, agents and subcontractors who will use eSC (“Users”). You must ensure that all Users consent to the passing of their names and other personal data required in connection with these Terms to us and the HA and our respective agents and sub-contractors.
You undertake to protect the confidentiality (i.e. keep it secret) and the integrity of the Certificate, and use reasonable precautions to prevent its loss, disclosure, or unauthorised use.
You must ensure confidentiality of patient data, including personal details and health data. Such shall include compliance with any rules and guidelines that we may issue from time to time in connection with the eHR Programme.
You must, both during and after the Term, keep secret and not disclose without our prior written consent any of our information disclosed to you in relation to eSC, except to the Users on a need-to-know basis solely for the purpose of these Terms. You must ensure that the Users abide by the same duty of confidentiality.
You acknowledge that we have informed you that eSC will keep a log of your connection activity regarding the eHealth and we will have access to such log.
The Certificate shall, subject to the early termination/revocation as mentioned in this clause, be valid and expire on the 5th anniversary of the date when you first start to use (“Term”). We may revoke or you may stop using the Certificate by giving to the other 30 days’ prior written notice.
We may revoke the Certificate immediately on written notice to you if:
we know or reasonably suspect that the secret key of the Certificate has been compromised;
u are in breach of any of these Terms and fail to remedy the breach (if capable of remedy) within 14 days of the date of written notice from us informing you of the breach; or
you transfer your business or enter into partnership with others, or you suspend or cease, or threaten to cease, to carry on your business.
When the Certificate is revoked, you stop using the Certificate or the Term comes to an end, you must:
cease using the Certificate to connect to eHealth;
follow the unwind procedures as instructed by us including removing all soft copies of the Certificate from your IT systems; and
destroy or return all user guides you have been given or are otherwise in your possession
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Hong Kong SAR.
You must comply, and procure that the Users comply, with all applicable laws and regulations in respect of the use of eSC and the handling of any data entered into, stored on or processed by eSC. You acknowledge and accept that any breach of these Terms or contravention of any applicable laws by any User shall be deemed a breach on your part of these Terms.
You must comply with the lawful requirements of any court, statutory or government body in connection with any lawful or properly authorised investigation conducted by them in respect of use of eSC or the handling of patient data.
The application of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Ordinance is expressly excluded and no person who is not a party to these Terms shall be entitled to enforce any right or term of these Terms pursuant to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Ordinance.