Privacy

Privacy Policy for Dr. Elsie Frickey

Privacy of personal information is an important principle to our office. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies.

WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, address, phone number, family status), their health (e.g., health history, health conditions, treatment received) or their activities and views (e.g., religion, politics, etc.) Personal information differs from business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.

WHO WE ARE:
Our office includes at the time of writing one chiropractor and one support staff. We use a number of agencies that may in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold. These include computer consultants, accountants and cleaners. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles.

WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION:

PRIMARY PURPOSES
Like all Health Care Providers, we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our patients. For our patients, the primary purpose for collecting personal information is to provide chiropractic and/or massage therapy treatment. For example, we collect information about a patient’s health history, including their family history, physical condition and function and social situation in order to help us assess what their health needs are, to advise them of their options and then to provide the health care they choose to have. A second primary purpose is to obtain a baseline of health and social information so that in providing ongoing health services we can identify changes that are occurring over time.

OUR WEB SITE
We only collect and use personal information (e.g. e-mail addresses) that you give us to respond to your email message or to remind you of your appointment as per your wishes.
Web site servers do log anonymous usage statistics (like visits per hour, web browser used) but this information cannot be associated with any individual person or computer.

RELATED AND SECONDARY PURPOSES
Like most organizations we also use personal information for other secondary purposes related to our primary purpose. Some common examples are as follows:

• Invoicing and collecting unpaid accounts and processing credit card payments.
• External audits by practise consultants, licensing peer reviews, etc., may on our behalf review patient files, x-rays and/or interview our staff as part of a quality improvement review of our office.
• Various government agencies (e.g., Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Information and Privacy Commission, Human Rights Commission, etc.) have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as part of their mandates. In these circumstances, we may consult with professionals (e.g., lawyers, accountants) who will investigate the matter and report back to us.
• The cost of some of the services provided by our office is paid for by third parties (e.g., OHIP, WSIB, private insurance, etc.). These third-party payers often have your consent or legislative authority to direct us to collect and disclose to them certain information in order to demonstrate patient entitlement to this funding.
• Patients or other individuals we deal with may have questions about our services after they have been received. We also provide ongoing treatment for many of our patients over a period of months or years for which our previous records are helpful. We retain our patient information for a minimum of ten years after the last contact to enable us to respond to those questions and provide these services (Our regulatory College also requires us to retain our records)
• If the Frickey Chiropractic practise or the Hoeft Massage Therapy practise or their assets were to be sold, the purchaser would want to conduct a “due diligence” review of the office records to ensure that it is a viable business that has been honestly portrayed to the purchaser. This due diligence may involve some review of our accounting and service files. The purchaser would not be able to remove or record personal information and must provide a written promise to keep all personal information confidential before being provided access to the files.

PROTECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION:
We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason we follow these procedures:

• Paper information is stored in filing cabinets in supervised areas.
• Electronic hardware is under supervision.
• Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes.
• Electronic information (e.g., OHIP, WSIB) is transmitted through a direct line.
• Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
• External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us.

RETENTION AND DESTRUCTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION:
We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about your care and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy.

We keep our files for approximately ten years after your last visit with us. We destroy paper files by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed. Records may be forwarded to another practitioner with your written or verbal consent.

YOU CAN LOOK AT YOUR INFORMATION:
You have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We can help you identify what records we might have about you. We will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., short forms, technical language, etc.). We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access.

If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?
Our Information Officer, Dr. Elsie Frickey can be reached at:
278 Lawrence Ave. Kitchener, N2M 1Y4
519-571-0544

She will attempt to answer any questions or concerns you might have.

Formal complaints about our privacy practices may be made in writing to our Information Officer. She will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.

This policy is made under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. It 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.

For more general inquires the Information and Privacy Commissioner can be reached at:

112 KENT ST, OTTAWA, ONT. K1A 1H3
Phone (613) 995-8210, TOLL-FREE 1-800-282-1376, FAX (613) 947-6850
www.privcom.gc.ca