Regulatory Colleges and Your Personal Information
January 2024
Information ACSLPA Collects
When regulated members register with ACSLPA, and every year during renewal, they report personal information such as their birthdate, middle name (more on this later), address, and employment record. This information is important to ACSLPA. For example, ACSLPA uses email addresses to send regulated members important updates about registration. ACSLPA also collects this information to fulfill requirements of the Health Professions Act (HPA).
Requirements of the HPA
ACSLPA is required to maintain a General Register of regulated members. Section 33(3) of the HPA outlines the following information which must be on this Register and made available to the public upon request:
a) The full name of the regulated member;
b) The regulated member’s unique registration number,
b.1) the period of time that the regulated member’s registration is active (for ACSLPA, this is January 1 through December 31);
c) Any condition on the regulated member’s practice permit;
d) The status of the permit;
e) The regulated member’s practice specialization (currently, legislation does not allow for practice specializations for ACSLPA’s regulated members);
f) Any restricted activities that the regulated member might perform that are not normally provided by regulated members of that college;
g) Any restricted activities that the regulated member cannot perform that are normally provided by regulated members of that college; and
h) Information regarding suspension, cancellation, or conditions on the regulated member’s practice permit.
The purpose of this General Register is to report important information to the public, such as whether the practitioner that is treating them is permitted to practice, if their practitioner is qualified to perform certain restricted activities, etc. ACSLPA will never release information to a member of the public beyond what is available on our General Register without the consent of the regulated member.
Checking the General Register
You can check the General register on the College website here, under ‘Public’ and ‘Verify Registration’.
Reporting to the Ministry of Health
Health Colleges in Alberta are also required by the HPA to report information to the Ministry of Health. Section 122 requires Health Colleges to compile and provide the information on the General Register to the Ministry. The Ministry of Health uses this information for workforce planning and to populate
the Provincial Provider Registry. In Alberta, the Provider Registry feeds information into Connect Care and Net Care.
Verify Registration
vs
Find A Practitioner
ACSLPA maintains two different lists of our regulated members. The first is the General Register which is mandated by the HPA.
The second is our “Find an Audiologist or SLP” directory, which allows members of the public to search for SLPs and audiologists in Alberta by location, services provided, languages, etc. Every year at renewal regulated members may choose to be displayed in this optional directory.
Reporting Middle Names
Regulated members may have noticed that during renewal they were asked to report their middle name if they hadn’t previously done so. Middle names are considered to be part of one’s “full name”, which is one of the items required by the HPA. ACSLPA’s records have been updated to comply with this requirement.
While ACSLPA chooses not to list middle names on our website, we would have to provide a regulated member’s middle name to the public upon request. Additionally, we have to report middle names to the Ministry of Health .
If you found this article interesting, all of our Insights publications can be accessed here. If you have questions about these topics, the legislation behind them, or the way ACSLPA functions please email feedback@acslpa.ca or call 780-944-1609 ext. 101.