Privacy Statement
At Oste Health Clinic, we are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. We will not disclose your personal information without consent or reasonable and lawful notice except when required or permitted by law.
Privacy Commitment
We protect patient privacy by:
- Collecting only the personal information required to provide clinical services.
- Advising you how your information might be disclosed and obtaining your consent.
- Safeguarding your personal information.
- Sharing your personal information only for the purposes stated and agreed to in a signed consent form or otherwise permitted by law.
- Ensuring any contractors we hire who may have access to your information also protect the privacy of your information.
- Training staff and adapting the office space to ensure maximum protection of your privacy.
- Ensuring personal information is current, complete and accurate.
- Providing you access to your personal information and a mechanism for requesting corrections.
- Having our privacy officer available to answer your questions.
- We periodically reviewing our privacy policy to ensure it provides adequate protection for your personal information.
Information Collected
The personal information collected is required to provide you with clinical services and facilitate payment for services rendered.
- Contact information: your name, phone number, address, email address and an emergency contact person.
- Health information: your health history, treatment received, names of other healthcare providers, family medical history, your subjective complaints, objective findings, diagnoses, the reason for discharge, and discharge plan.
- Financial information: your insurance benefit coverage information, credit card information, employer’s name, and other information to facilitate payment for services provided.
Information Usage
We use contact information to open and update your patient file, invoice for services, remind you of appointments and/or the need for further treatment, and provide informational materials about our clinic. We use health information to assess, diagnose, provide, and evaluate physiotherapy treatment. We use financial information to arrange payment for physiotherapy services rendered.
Sharing Your Information
Contact information – may be disclosed to third-party health benefit providers/insurers when reimbursement claims for all or part of the treatment cost have been submitted.
Health information – may be disclosed to:
- Third-party health benefit providers and insurance companies when a claim is submitted for reimbursement or payment of all or part of the cost of treatment or we have been asked to submit a claim on your behalf.
- The WCB or your employer if you made a WCB claim.
- Other healthcare professionals are also providing you with treatment.
- Your lawyer, if you were injured in an accident.
- Research teams in an anonymous form to facilitate outcome research.
Financial information – may be disclosed to your insurer or credit card Company as required to facilitate payment.
Note: Personal information can also be disclosed without your consent if required to do so by law.
Information Stored Outside Of Canada
We contract with companies outside of Canada to provide services on our behalf, such as with companies in the USA, Australia. These companies and their affiliates may store personal information outside of Canada. For further information regarding the storage of personal data outside of Canada or regarding the Osteo Health Clinic policies and practices regarding the storage of information outside of Canada, please contact our Privacy Officer, whose contact information is listed at the end of this Privacy Statement.
Security
- We store electronic records on a Clinic Management Platform provided by the third party. We use antivirus software and passwords on all computers and protect screen monitors from public viewing.
- We share electronic records with the clients using the safe Clinic Management Platform.
- We conduct telephone discussions with sensitivity to ensure that your personal information is not disclosed.
- All sensitive information, including X-ray, Ultrasound, MRI reports, Clinical Assessment reports and others, is transferred by fax.
- We do not share your personal information outside our office for any marketing, promotional, publicity, educational, or research purposes without your consent.
- We train staff to handle your information only through the protected measures outlined in our privacy procedures. If consultants or contractors are hired, we take steps to ensure the consultant or contractor also protects your privacy.
Your Rights
You can get access to view your personal information by creating your account with Osteo Health Clinic. You can change your personal information if it is inaccurate, incomplete, no longer current, or if you believe there is a factual mistake.
Storage Period
We are required by legislation to keep records containing personal information for 10 years from the last date of service, in the case of a minor, 10 years past the minor’s eighteenth birthday. After that time, we delete electronic files.
Contact Us
If you have a concern about your personal information, please feel free to ask your Therapist who is treating you or another staff member. If your question/concern is not resolved, please address it in writing to our Privacy Officer:
Osteo Health Calgary Ltd.
Email: clinic@osteohealthcalgary.com
Attention: Privacy Officer
Updated: July 16, 2021