Accessibility Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Our pledge regarding your personal information

Lakeshore Cardiology Clinic value privacy and are committed to protecting the privacy of our patients’ personal information, including personal health information. This Privacy Notice tells you about the ways in which we collect, use, disclose and otherwise manage personal information.

Application of this Privacy Notice

The privacy practices described in this Privacy Notice will be followed by all healthcare providers and staff at Lakeshore Cardiology.

Personal Information

“Personal information” means information about an identifiable individual and includes personal health information.

We may collect personal information from our clients directly, from their physicians, or from other third parties. For example, we may collect:

  • Name
  • Gender
  • Date of birth
  • Address
  • Confidential, general, or business email address
  • Phone number
  • Interests and preferences
  • Call recordings
  • General health concerns
  • Personal and family medical history
  • Health card number
  • Physician
  • • Samples
  • • Diagnosis
  • • Prescriptions
  • • Referrals
  • • Treatment plans
  • • Other relevant information, as required.

 

Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

We may collect, use, or disclose personal information as set out below and as otherwise required or permitted by law. Personal information may be collected, used, and disclosed before, during and after your visit to Lakeshore Cardiology.

 

Health Care Services:

In general, we may collect, use, and disclose your personal information for the purposes of determining suitability for, planning and delivering health care services. While providing these 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 health professional or member of your clinical care team, a public hospital, pharmacy, laboratory, or ambulance service), 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.

Payment:

In some cases, where not insured by OHIP or insurance, Lakeshore Cardiology may collect, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of facilitating payment for our services, which could include a Cancellation Fee. Please call to confirm our Cancellation policy for your appointments.

Research:

Lakeshore Cardiology may conduct and/or participate in research and analysis in which we may use your personal information, including personal health information which may be in a 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 Lakeshore Cardiology services, including the evaluation and monitoring of those services. For example, we may record incoming and outgoing phone calls for training and quality assurance purposes. We may also conduct video recording for security purposes via the use of cameras located in public areas of our clinic such as reception and clinic entrance and exit locations.

Legal & Compliance:

We or our service providers 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 Lakeshore Cardiology or as part of a corporate reorganization or other change in corporate control.

Storage of Personal Information

Your personal information will be maintained by Lakeshore Cardiology in Canada or by our service providers in Canada or the United States. We use third parties to provide various services on our behalf. For example, we may use service providers to store our data, record telephone calls, process test results and send email communications. When we transfer personal information to service providers, we take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is protected from loss, theft or unauthorized access, use, modification, and disclosure.

Safeguards

Lakeshore Cardiology 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 and control.

Access & Correction Rights

You may also ask to see your health record or make a formal written request to see and/or obtain a copy of your 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 the information is subject to legal privilege, it is reasonable to believe that disclosure would result in a risk of serious bodily harm to you or another person, if a provincial or federal act prohibits disclosure).

If you believe your 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 Lakeshore Cardiology and/or 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.

At your request, 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

Lakeshore Cardiology may revise its privacy practices and this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will post a copy of the current Privacy Notice on the Lakeshore Cardiology website at www.lakeshorecardiology.com. In addition, you may request a copy of the Privacy Notice currently in effect at any time by contacting us.

 

Information about our Website

We collect the IP (Internet protocol) addresses of all visitors to our websites (including www.lakeshorecardiology.com) other related information such as page requests, browser type, operating system and average time spent on our websites. We use this information to help us understand our website activity, and to monitor and improve our websites. Our websites use a technology called “cookies”. Cookies may let us know who you are and may help us personalize your experience on our websites. You may set your Web browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to not accept certain cookies. However, if you decide not to accept cookies from our websites, you may not be able to take advantage of all the features of our websites.

Questions or Comments

If you wish more information, access to your records or you believe that your privacy rights have not been followed as required by law or as explained in this Privacy Notice, you may contact us at the address, email address or phone number below: