It is important to take the handling of "consent" in referrals seriously. Every referral form submitted through our platform includes a clear, purpose-built consent statement that meets legal and ethical standards across Canadian and U.S. healthcare jurisdictions. This article explains how our consent statement works, what makes it legally sound, and why it is suitable for widespread use across healthcare organizations.
What Does the Caredove Consent Statement Say?
Here is the standard consent statement that appears at the end of Caredove referral forms:
By submitting this form, I agree to send this personal information to {{Organization}}, for the purpose of requesting {{Service}}. I have the consent/authorization to send the information about any other people that may be included on this form (e.g., a client, parent, child). I agree to these Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, which outline how this personal information is kept safe.
This consent is presented directly above the Submit button, ensuring that users clearly see it at the point of action.
Why This Consent Statement Is Legally Strong
Our consent statement is designed to comply with multiple legal frameworks including:
Canadian Standards
PIPEDA (federal): Requires informed, meaningful consent before collecting or disclosing personal information.
PHIPA (Ontario): Requires express consent for sharing personal health information (PHI) between health information custodians.
U.S. Standards
HIPAA: Requires authorization before disclosing PHI outside of routine care, especially when sharing across organizations.
🔑 Key Legal Strengths:
Clarity: Uses plain language to explain who the information is being sent to and why.
Affirmative Action: Consent is tied directly to the “Submit” action, a standard accepted in eConsent practices.
Proximity: The consent statement appears just above the submit button, ensuring it is read before submission.
Third-Party Consent: Explicitly covers consent for information about other individuals (e.g., a parent submitting for a child).
Linked Policies: Terms and Privacy links provide full transparency about data protection and retention.
Affirmative Action + Clear Language: A Strong Approach to Consent
Caredove’s consent model is built around affirmative user action, which is a recognized and widely accepted standard in both Canadian and U.S. privacy law. Rather than asking users to check a separate box, we design our forms so that:
The consent language is displayed clearly and visibly, immediately above the Submit button.
The act of clicking Submit is a deliberate action, taken with full visibility of the consent terms.
The user is not submitting passively or accidentally—their action affirms their intent to share information.
This approach aligns with modern digital consent best practices, which prioritize:
Clarity over complexity.
User flow that encourages comprehension rather than checkbox fatigue.
Strong auditability, including a log of what was shown and when the consent occurred.
Affirmative action through the Submit button is equivalent in strength to a checked box—but with fewer risks of being missed, misunderstood, or seen as a formality. It integrates consent into the core referral action, ensuring that users understand the purpose of their submission in context.
Audit Trail = Proof of Consent
Each referral includes a timestamped record of:
The exact consent language shown at the time of submission
The user’s click on “Submit”
Metadata such as IP address and browser details
This creates a complete, verifiable record of consent—strong enough for privacy audits, internal reviews, or compliance reporting under PIPEDA, PHIPA, and HIPAA.
Why It Works for Most Customers
Most healthcare and community service organizations using Caredove share a common need: to collect referrals while ensuring legal, ethical handling of personal data. Our standardized consent language works across the board because:
It is general enough to apply to many types of services (e.g., mental health, home care, rehab)
It is customized per referral, dynamically inserting the receiving organization and service
It is fully integrated into the platform’s referral workflow, requiring no additional configuration
Organizations can confidently rely on this consent language to fulfill their legal obligations around informed consent—without having to develop and maintain custom consent text.
Can I Customize It?
In special cases—such as referrals involving specific legal jurisdictions or sensitive populations—organizations may wish to include additional language. Caredove can support customizations upon request, but in most cases, the standard consent statement is already fully sufficient and legally robust.
It’s important to note that customized consent statements do not automatically benefit from future improvements or legal updates that Caredove may apply to the standard consent language. Our standard statement is routinely reviewed and updated to reflect evolving best practices and legal requirements across Canadian and U.S. healthcare environments. By customizing the consent text, organizations take on the responsibility of ensuring ongoing legal compliance and relevancy of the customized version.
Need More Help?
If you have questions about how consent is captured and managed in Caredove, or want to explore consent customization options, please contact our support team.