PRIVACY POLICY
INTRODUCTION
Oakville Eye Care is committed to collecting, using and disclosing your personal information in a responsible manner. The privacy practices of our offices are in accordance with all federal and provincial law and regulations. We are compliant with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, where applicable, with the privacy rules established by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). This document describes our privacy policy. Our practices to safeguard your private information are reviewed and revised on a regular basis.
WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Personal information is information about an individual. It includes information that relates to your personal characteristics (eg. gender, age, income, home address, phone number(s), ethnic background, religion, family status, etc.), or your health (eg. health history, health conditions, health services, etc). Your business information, when used for business contact purposes (eg. address, phone number, etc.), is not considered personal information and therefore is not affected by privacy legislation. Patient and visitor information is not disclosed to anyone except our staff, consultants or others as noted in our office privacy policy who may require the information.
COLLECTION AND USE
Personal information collected from patients of this practice shall be limited to that required to:
Evaluate your vision eye health
Determine and recommend appropriate treatment and referral
Communicate with you about the services we provide
To advise you about your health care needs
Provide you with vision, eye care, health or other product or treatment information
Process payment and pursue collection of accounts receivable for services and produced received from our clinic.
Communicate with others (eg. other health care providers, lawyers, third party insurers, etc.) about your health and status.
DISCLOSURE
In the course of providing optometric care services to you, your personal information may be disclosed where required or allowed by law and may also be disclosed to:
Other health care providers
Insurers or other third party payers you have identified
Regulatory authorities, where such information may assist in the investigation of a complaint or a review of standards of care
Governmental authorities (eg. CCRA, Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, etc.) who have it in their mandate to access your file
Our practice’s lawyers, accountants, information managers or other consultants contracted to provide advice or counsel regarding the administration or management of the practice.
On termination of sale of the practice, to a purchasing optometrist or file storage facility that agrees to serve as trustee of your personal information and to only access this information for the purpose of confirming their custody of your file, unless you initiate contact as a patient
The disclosure of personal information shall be limited to that which is necessary for the purpose for which it is disclosed. All the above noted external parties have the same legal responsibility as this practice to protect all personal information collected in the course of their activities.
ACCESS AND DESTRUCTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
You have the right to access your personal information as any reasonable time (eg. during regular office hours) and have the right to request corrections to your personal information. This applies to factual information and not professional opinions we may have recorded. Corrections are recorded on your patient file. If our office does not agree with the corrections, we will include a brief statement on your file recording both opinions. Reasonable safeguards will be taken whenever paper and electronic records are destroyed or deleted. Every reasonable effort will be made to ensure that no record remains after destruction.
EMAIL ADDRESSES
Our office collects and uses email address for the purpose of sending information, recall letters, appointment reminders, referral information (only at the patients request) and for our online newsletters. Our online newsletter is optional and we allow patients to up in or out. You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button on any email newsletter you receive. Emails sent for patient correspondence and exam appointment reminders are sent for your personal benefit as we want you to be aware of your eye exam appointments. If you would like to be removed from receiving these emails we ask that your contact our office directly. Because email is not completely secure, we never send medical information or medical attachments, except at the consent of the patient. If you are receiving our email newsletter it is because you voluntarily provided us with your email address and consent while in our office, or through our online signup forms. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you may unsubscribe at any time. There is an unsubscribe button on the bottom of every email newsletter, please click on the link and follow the directions.
DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?
Should you have any questions, please send them to info@cyeyecare.com and we will happily assist you.
This policy is made pursuant to Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. That is a complex Act and provides some additional exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detailed to set out here. There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be reached at: 30 Victoria Street Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3 Toll-free: 1-800-282-1376 Phone: (819) 994-5444 Online Information Request Form Fax: (819) 994-5424 TTY: (819) 994-6591 web site www.privcom.gc.ca