Office Privacy Policy.

Introduction

The privacy of our patient’s personal information is an important principle to Helio Optometry and its optometrists. Our eye care clinic is committed to collecting, using and disclosing your personal information in a responsible manner. This document describes our privacy policy.

What is Personal Information

Personal information is information about an individual. It includes information that relates to your personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address, phone number(s), ethnic background, religion, family status, etc.), or your health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services, etc.).
Your business information, when used for business contact purposes (e.g., address, phone number, etc.), is not considered personal information and therefore is not affected by privacy legislation.

Collection and Use

Personal information collected from patients of this practice shall be limited to that required to:
Evaluate your eye health and vision status
Determine and recommend appropriate treatment and referral
Communicate with you about the services we provide
To advise you about your vision care needs
Provide you with eye-care, health or other product or treatment information
Process payment and pursue collection of accounts receivable for services and products received from our clinic.
Communicate with others (e.g., other health care providers, lawyers, third-party insurers, etc.) about your eye health and vision status.
Disclosure: In the course of providing eye care services to you, your personal information may be disclosed where required or allowed by law and other health care providers as noted below.

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 bodies (e.g., 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 are 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 only to access this information for the purpose of confirming their custody of your file, unless you initiate contact with 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 optometry 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 at a reasonable time (e.g., 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 registered in 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 documents are destroyed or deleted. Every reasonable effort will be made to ensure that no record remains after destruction.
Your optometrist may take various digital retinal images in order to aid in the diagnosis of your eye health. These images are part of your health record and are stored in accordance with best practice guidelines. If you would like a copy of any digital images, a $25.00+GST fee will apply for the time and effort, along with the cost+gst of a new USB key to which the images can be transferred (External USB keys are not allowed for viruses and privacy concerns). As with all non-urgent requests we have 30-days to collect your information.

Online Signatures & Patient Release Forms

Online signatures contained on patient release forms follow the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) as outlined by the Office of the Privacy Commission of Canada. Online signatures with legally compliant e-signature software such as the Adobe EchoSign used by our organization are considered to be as valid and binding as traditional pen-and-paper documents.

Email Addresses

Our office collects and uses the email address for the purpose of sending information, recall letters, appointment reminders, referral information (only at the patient's request) and for our online newsletters and marketing.
Our online newsletter and marketing materials are optional, and we allow patients to opt-in or out. You may also 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 you contact our office directly, or reply 'STOP'. Because email is not completely secure, we never send medical information or medical attachments, except with the consent of the patient.
If you do not subscribe to or you unsubscribe to email correspondence we cannot send any information to you via this method, which includes: copies of your eyeglass prescription, contact lens prescriptions, and receipts.
PLEASE NOTE: Your email address is part of your personal patient file, and as such will never be sold, licensed, or otherwise distributed to a third party.

Cell Phone Numbers

Our office collects and uses cell phone numbers to send appointment confirmations, appointment cancellations and appointment reminders.
If you would like to stop receiving text messages, simply call our office or reply 'STOP' to one of the text messages.
PLEASE NOTE: Your cell phone number is part of your personal patient file, and as such will never be sold, licensed, or otherwise distributed to a third party.

Fax

Our office uses digital fax to communicate with other specialists as per the current best practices. As faxes are not completely secure, there is a risk that your personal information and medical information may be intercepted.

In-Office Video Recording

Our office uses a high-definition in-office video recording system within the public reception area of our clinic to monitor theft and provides safety to our office staff and doctors. All digital video is stored for 30- days before being destroyed and can only be accessed by the clinic privacy officer or at the request of a law enforcement officer. The video is not used to monitor the activities of patrons or staff on a regular basis. A window label is clearly visible on the outside of our clinic notifying all customers that a CCTV system is in use.

Do you have a Question?

Our Privacy Officer is Dr. Ross McKenzie. He can be reached at 780.628.6855

More general inquiries should be directed to: The Alberta Government Privacy Help Desk – privacyhelpdesk@gov.ab.ca