Privacy Statement regarding Patient Personal Information
Our privacy policies and procedures comply with federal legislation called the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). This very complex law does provide for some exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detailed to outline here. Our Privacy Code sets out this dental office’s commitment to protecting your private health and personal information.
Our office staff understands the importance of protecting your personal information. To help you understand how we are doing that, we have outlined in this document how our office staff is using and disclosing your information.
This office will collect (in writing, by mail, by fax, verbally, in person, by email, through our website, etc . . .), use and disclose information about you for the following purposes:
- to deliver safe and efficient patient care to identify and to ensure continuous high quality service
- to assess your health needs
- to provide health care
- to advise you of treatment options
- to enable us to contact you
- to establish and maintain communication with you
- to allow us to maintain communication and contact with you to distribute health-care information and to book and confirm appointments
- to offer and provide treatment, care and services in relationship to the oral and maxillofacial complex and dental are generally
- to communicate with other treating health-care providers, including specialists and general dentists who are the referring dentists and/or peripheral dentists
- to allow us to efficiently follow-up for treatment, care and billing; to complete and submit dental claims for third party adjudication and payment
- to communicate with insurance companies and to otherwise process requests by you.
- for teaching and demonstration purposes on an anonymous basis
- to comply with legal and regulatory requirements including the delivery of patient charts and records to the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario in a timely fashion, when required, according to the provision of the Regulated Health Professions Act
- to comply with agreements/undertakings entered into voluntarily by the member with the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario, including the delivery and/or review of patient charts and records to the College in a timely fashion for regularly and monitoring purposes
- to permit potential purchasers, practice brokers or advisors to evaluate the dental practice, including an audit, on a confidential basis, in preparation for a practice sale
- to deliver your charts and records to the dentist’s insurance carrier to enable the insurance company to assess liability and quantify damages, if any
- to prepare materials for the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (HPARB)
- to manage patient and clients’ accounts, including invoicing, processing credit card payments and collecting unpaid accounts
- for internal management purposes, including planning, resource allocation, policy development, quality improvement, monitoring, audit, evaluation, reporting, obtaining or processing payment for health services and human management; and
- to comply generally with Privacy Laws and all other applicable regulatory requirements
By signing the consent section of our New Patient and Medical History Form, you have agreed that you have given your informed consent to the collection, use and/or disclosure of your personal information for the purposes that are listed.
If a new purpose arises for the use and/or disclosure of your personal information, we will seek your approval in advance.
Your information may be accessed by regulatory authorities under the terms of the Regulated Health Professional Act (RHPA) for the purposes of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario fulfilling its mandate under the RHPA, and for the defense of a legal issue.
Our office staff will not under any condition supply your insurer with your confidential medical history. In the event that this kind of request is made, we will forward the information directly to you for review, and for your specific consent.
When unusual requests are received, we will contact you for permission to release such information. We may also advise you if such a release is inappropriate.
You may withdraw your consent for use or disclosure of your personal information, and we will explain the ramifications of that decision, and the process.
Our office staff require either express consent or implied consent from our patients before we may collect, use, or disclose Personal Information. When we collect, use, and disclose your Personal Information for health care purposes, Privacy Laws generally permit us to rely upon your implied consent. However, if the purpose is something other than health care, we may be required to obtain your express consent. The Privacy Laws also provides instances where we may collect, use, or disclose your Personal Information without consent.
Implied consent enables us to conclude from surrounding circumstances that a patient would reasonably agree to the collection, use, or disclosure of Personal Information. We may rely upon your implied consent if we are collecting your Personal Information to provide health care.
Express consent is required when we are disclosing your Personal Information for a purpose other than providing or assisting in providing health care.
In order for the principles of consent to be satisfied, our office staff has undertaken reasonable efforts to ensure that you are advised of the purposes for which Personal Information is being used, and that you understand those purposes. Once consent is obtained, we do not need to seek your consent again unless the use, purpose or disclosure changes.
Our existing protocols for electronic submissions of dental claims require a signature on file. Specific consent may be required for additional requests from insurers. This consent shall be collected at the time, or in conjunction with, predeterminations for extensive services, provided that the scope of Personal Information released is disclosed. If there is any doubt, Personal Information shall be released directly to you for your review and submission.
Your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information may be given in a number of ways, such as:
- signed medical history form;
- e-mail;
- signed introductory questionnaire;
- taken verbally over the telephone and then charted; or
- written correspondence.
You may withdraw your consent upon reasonable notice, in writing, to our office.
Information Automatically Collected
We use retargeting through various platforms (Google, Bing and other third-party vendors) to advertise this site. Sites across the Internet may show these ads. We, and these advertising platforms, use first-party cookies (such as Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (retargeting cookies) together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on past visits to this website. You may opt out of seeing these ads by going into your browser settings and restricting acceptance of cookies.
Safeguards for Personal Information
Our office staff are aware of the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of your Personal Information and we have taken appropriate measures to safeguard your Personal Information, in all formats (electronic and paper).
These safeguards are in place to protect your Personal Information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. All email communication with our office is stored securely and indefinitely on our secure servers.
Your Personal Information is protected, whether recorded on paper or electronically, and caution is used in its maintenance and destruction to prevent unauthorized access at all times while in our care and under our control.
How to Access the Privacy Process in our Office
Privacy of your personal information is an important part of our office on providing you with quality dental care. We understand the importance of protecting your personal information. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing your personal information responsibly. We also try to be as open and transparent as possible about the way in which we handle your personal information. It is important to us to provide this service to our patients.
Please be assured that every staff member in our office is committed to ensuring that you receive the best quality dental care.
Our Privacy Information Officer Ms. Rebeca Oueis can be reached at:
The Dental Office at Lyon & Glebe
645 Lyon Street South
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 3Z6
Phone: (613)233-2000
Fax: (613)233-2001
Ms. Oueis will attempt to answer any questions or concerns that you might have. If you do have a concern and / or wish to make a complaint to us about our privacy practices, including asking questions about the contents of your charts or records, you must make your request in writing.
Please send it to our office’s Privacy Information Officer by surface mail, fax or e-mail.
Our Privacy Information Officer will promptly acknowledge receipt of your complaint in writing, and will ensure that it is investigated thoroughly. You will be provided with a formal decision in writing, and the reason for the decision.
If you are dissatisfied with the decision, you may seek further information from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. We have included all the necessary contact information below.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada
112 Kent Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1H3
General Inquiries:
Phone: (613)995-8210
Toll Free: 1-800-282-1376
Fax: (613)947-1376