Walden Physiotherapy Clinic Inc.("Walden Physio"“we”, “us”, “our”) values privacy and is committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality and security of its clients’ personal information, including personal health information in our custody or under our control. Walden Physio is committed to collecting, using, and disclosing personal and personal health information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the services we provide.
Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information
In this Privacy Notice, personally identifiable information about you will be referred to as
“Personal Information”. We may collect, use or disclose Personal Information as set out below and as otherwise required or permitted by law. For example, we may collect your name, gender, date of birth, address, email address, phone number, payment card information, employer and employment status, call recordings, general health concerns, health card number, physician, diagnosis, referrals, treatment plans and other relevant information as required. Personal Information may be collected, used and disclosed before, during and after your visit to Walden Physio.
Health Care Services: In general, we may collect use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of assessment, planning, treatment or delivering other health-related services. We may collect personal information from you directly, or from your employer, insurer or from other third parties if you provide us with consent to do so or if we are authorized to do so by law. We will only collect the personal information we need to provide you with health care services.
In the course of providing health care services, your personal information may be shared with health information custodians involved in your care (e.g. another physician or health care practitioner, an allied professional or member of your clinical care team) or with referral sources (e.g., your insurer, applicable provincial health authority or applicable workers compensation provider) unless instructed otherwise by you.
We may also share your personal information for the purposes of contacting your family or a potential substitute decision maker.
Consent:
- If you do not wish your personal health information to be used or shared, you have the right to refuse to provide all or part of the information to us at the time we request the information or anytime afterwards.
- We may not be able to fulfill your wishes if they impact our ability to deliver quality health care to you or if we are legislated to use or disclose the information to which you object. In these cases we will discuss the impact of your objection with you.
- If we find it necessary to disclose your information for purposes other than providing health care, we will notify you of the purpose for the disclosure and ask you for consent to disclose the information.
- The way we collect your consent may vary depending on the purpose for the consent.
Payment: We may collect, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of facilitating and/or collecting payment for our services or to determine any entitlement to insurance coverage or other benefits.
Research: Walden Physio may conduct or participate in research and analysis in which case your personal information, including personal health information, may be analyzed in de-identified form. The results of this research and analysis will not be disclosed or otherwise published in a manner that could identify an individual. Any additional testing for research or analysis purposes that involves the collection, use or disclosure of information that could identify an individual will involve a separate informed consent process.
Internal Operations: We may collect, use and disclose personal information for the purposes of risk management, security or otherwise to improve the quality of Walden Physio services, including the evaluation and monitoring of those services. For example, we may record phone calls at our after-hours call centre for training, documentation and quality assurance purposes. We may also conduct video recording for security purposes via the use of cameras located in public areas of some of our facilities such as reception, entrance and exit locations, and outdoor areas such as parking or facility grounds.
Legal & Compliance: We may disclose your personal information where required or permitted by law. For example, we may provide your personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order. We may also disclose personal information for certain proceedings and to investigate or prevent actual or suspected loss or harm to persons or property.
We may transfer any information we have about you in connection with a proposed or completed merger or sale involving all or part of Walden Physio or as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control.
Storage of Personal Information
Your personal information will be maintained in Canada. We use third parties to provide various services on our behalf. For example, we may use service providers to store our data, authorize and process payments, provide services, record telephone calls, and send email communications. When we transfer personal information, we take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is protected from loss, theft or unauthorized access, use, modification and disclosure.
Safeguards
Walden Physio believes that securing your personal information is a very important part of our job. We have implemented reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards in an effort to protect against loss, theft or unauthorized access, use, copying, modification, disclosure and disposal of personal information in our custody.
In some cases we may share your personal health information with third parties such as vendors, suppliers or providers responsible for administering our programs. These organizations must sign a contract with us to follow privacy and health information practices that are the same as or similar to our own.
Access & Correction Rights
You may ask to see your health record or make a formal written request to see and/or obtain a copy of your health record. We will endeavour to respond to a formal access request within 30 days. If necessary, we will provide written notice of the reason for any time extension and the length of the extension.
We may deny or restrict your access to your health record in very limited circumstances (e.g., if it is reasonable to believe the disclosure would result in a risk of serious harm to you or another person, or if a provincial or federal act prohibits disclosure).
If you believe your health record to be inaccurate or incomplete, you may request that the record be corrected. We will make the correction if you demonstrate that the information is inaccurate or incomplete for the purposes for which the information is being used. We may not correct the record if it was not originally created at Walden Physio and we do not have sufficient knowledge, expertise or authority to correct it; or if the record consists of a professional opinion or observation made in good faith about you. We will, however, note the request for correction and the fact that we did not make any changes based on one of these reasons in the record.
We will provide written notice to third parties who received the incorrect information about the correction, to the extent reasonably possible and if the correction could reasonably be expected to have an impact on your ongoing health care or benefits.
Changes to our privacy practices and this Privacy Notice
Walden Physiotherapy Clinic Inc. reserves the right to modify or amend this Privacy Notice at any time and for any reason. We will also update this Privacy Policy and our privacy practices to comply with federal and provincial privacy legislation as they may each apply. You may request a copy of the Privacy Notice currently in effect at any time by contacting us. This Privacy Notice was last modified on September 1, 2022.
If you feel that your privacy rights have not been followed as required by law or as explained in this Privacy Notice, you may consult:
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
Walden Physiotherapy Clinic Inc. will not engage in any reprisal toward any individual who may, in good faith, file a complaint with or cooperate with any investigation conducted by their provincial or territorial oversight office or the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.