Richvale Dental Hygiene Inc. recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. As registered dental hygienists we have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we receive within a client relationship. 

We are committed to protecting any personal information we hold. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy. 

 

Your Privacy Rights
Ontarians’ privacy is protected by a host of Federal and Provincial statutes and regulations including, the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA), which governs the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Health Information within Ontario’s health care system, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which governs Personal Information other than Personal Health Information.

Dental Hygienist are also obliged to follow all guidelines and practices established by the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario and are accountable under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991.

Additional rights and protections with regards to communication between commercial entities and individuals are provided under Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL).

Richvale Dental Hygiene Inc. and your individual dental hygienist are responsible for the personal information we collect and hold. We have developed this policy and associated practices to help ensure that your information is rigorously and consistently handled with care and treated with discretion and consideration for your privacy.

Why Does Richvale Dental Hygiene Inc. Need Personal Information?
We ask you for information to establish a relationship and serve your dental hygiene needs. More specifically We may collect, use and disclose information about you for the following purposes:

  • To plan, recommend and deliver appropriate, safe and efficient dental hygiene care;
  • To understand and assess your dental hygiene priority and needs;
  • To effectively communicate with other treating health-care providers, including specialists and general dentists who are the referring dentists and/or peripheral dentists;
  • To contact you in order to book and confirm appointments;
  • To complete billing, collection and the processing of insurance claims;
  • To comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including the accommodation of inspection and/or review requests by the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario and/or an authorized representative of the Provincial or Federal Government in accordance with the Regulated Health Professions Act;
  • To inform any matter before the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario or any other body convened under the authority of the Regulate Health Professionals Act directly related to your dental hygiene care; and
  • To comply with any legislative or regulatory requirements, court orders, or similar authorities and to comply generally with the law

We will limit the information we collect to what we need for those purposes, and we will use it only for those purposes. We will obtain your consent if we wish to use your information for any other purpose.

How is my Personal Information Collected
We obtain most of our information about you directly from you, or from other health practitioners whom you have seen and authorized to disclose to us.

You may provide information in writing, in person within the context of treatment or a discussion regarding treatment, electronically via this web site or other electronic means or in a variety of other ways.

Personal information may also be collected from third party actors in the course of administering your account. Such third parties may include, but may not be limited to banks, credit card companies, insurers, third-party payers such as employers or family, etc…

Use of Your Information
The information we request from you is used for the purposes defined. We will seek your consent before using the information for purposes beyond the scope of outlined in this privacy policy. Under no circumstances do we sell client lists or other personal information to third parties.

There are some types of disclosure of your personal health information that may occur as part of this Practice fulfilling its routine obligations and/or practice management. This includes consultants and suppliers to the practice, on the understanding that they abide by our Privacy Policy, and only to the extent necessary to allow them to provide business services or support to this practice. Only Richvale Dental Hygiene will retain your information.

Accuracy of Personal Information
We will endeavor to ensure that all your personal information is accurate and up to date and that any decisions or recommendations regarding your dental hygiene care is based on current information. While we will do our best to maintain accurate information, we rely on you to disclose all material information and to inform us of any relevant changes.

Security of Personal Information
Richvale Dental Hygiene takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect your information are:

  • premises security;
  • restricted file access to personal information;
  • deploying technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access;
  • internal password and security policies

Consent
You have the right to determine how your personal health information is used and disclosed. For most purposes related to the provision of dental hygiene care, your consent is implied as a result of your consent to treatment.

Express consent must be in written form and In some circumstances we may ask for your consent in writing. The most common reason we would ask for express consent would be the release of your personal information to a third-party at your request, or upon your express approval.

If you wish to withdraw either express or implied consent this must sign and date a Withdrawal of Consent form. Upon completion and submission of a Withdrawal of Concent form, it will be included with your client records/charts. Should you complete and submit a Withdrawal of Consent form, it shall only apply to personal information gathered prior to the date on which the form is finally signed; it shall not apply to any personal information you choose to share with us subsequent to that date.

Further, it is important to note that Richvale Dental Hygiene reserves the right to share personal information despite the submission of a Withdrawl of Consent from under certain circumstance including or akin to the following: closing of accounts, issuance or collection of invoices for services, in the case of a medical emergency, or in the event we are compelled to do so by any duly authorized court or government agency.

Access to Your Personal Information
You may ask for access to any personal information we hold about you.

Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute and we may deny access under certain circumstances. The most common examples of when such access might be denied include, but are not limited to:

  • In a case where your information forms part of another confidential record such as that of a family member’s medical history provided by them in respect of their care;
  • If required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is protected by client privilege);
  • To do so would reveal confidential commercial information, and the personal information cannot be severed from the record;
  • To do so could reasonably be expected to threaten the life or security of another individual, and the personal information cannot be severed from the record; or
  • The information was generated in the course of a formal dispute resolution process.

If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct information, an explanation shall be provided to you in writing.

Web Site
Our website contains links to other sites, which are not governed by this privacy policy.

On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.

Should you submit information, including your name, contact details or any private medical information via this our web site (www.richvaledental.ca) you have provided implied consent for us to collect, record, use and disclose that information as set out within this privacy policy.

Communicating with Us
You should be aware that e-mail is not a 100% secure medium, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.

Employment Inquiries
If you apply for a career with Richvale Dental Hygiene we will need to consider your personal information as part of our review process. We normally retain information from candidates after a decision has been made, unless you ask us not to retain the information. If we offer you a job, which you accept, the information will be retained in accordance with our privacy procedures for employee records

Changes to this Privacy Policy
Richvale Dental Hygiene Inc. will review our procedures and practices with respect to the collection, use and distribution of personal information on a regular basis we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time.

Requests for Access
If you have any questions, or wish to access your personal information, please write to us at:

Richvale Dental Hygiene Inc
#122-8763 Bayview Ave
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3V1

Or

Via E-Mail at [email protected]

 

If, after contacting us, you feel that your concerns or inquiries have not been addressed to your satisfaction, you have the right to complain to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. The Commissioner can be reached at:

2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400
Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8

Or

By Phone at 416-326-3333