Privacy of personal information is an important principle to Maitri Healing. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the goods and services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies.
WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (e.g. gender, age, income, home address or phone number, ethnic background, family status), their health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received by them) or their activities and views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal information is to be contrasted with business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.
WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION; PRIMARY PURPOSES
About Client
Like all Licensed Holistic Practitioners, we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. For our clients, the primary purpose for collecting personal information is to provide care. For example, we collect information about a client’s health history, including their family history, physical condition and function and social situation in order to help us assess their health needs, to advise them of their options and then to provide the health care they choose. Another purpose is to obtain a baseline of health and social information so that in providing ongoing health services we can identify changes that are occurring over time. It would be rare for us to collect such information without the client’s express consent, but this might occur in an emergency (e.g., the client is unconscious) or where we believe the client would consent if asked and it is impractical to obtain consent (e.g., a family member passing a message on from our client and we have no reason to believe that the message is not genuine).
About Members of the General Public
For members of the general public, our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to provide notice of special events (e.g., a seminar, health talk or open house) or to make them aware of complementary therapies in general or our clinic in particular. For example, while we try to use work contact information where possible, we might collect home addresses, fax numbers and email addresses. We try to obtain consent before using any such personal information, but where this is not, for any reason, possible, we will upon request immediately remove any personal information from our distribution list.
On our website we only collect, with the exception of cookies, the personal information you provide and only use that information for the purpose you gave it to us (e.g., to respond to your email message, to subscribe to our newsletter). Cookies are only used to help you navigate our website and are not used to monitor you.
WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION: RELATED AND SECONDARY PURPOSE
Like most organizations, we also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows
To invoice clients for goods or services, or to advise clients and others of special events or opportunities (e.g., a seminar, development of a new service, arrival of a new product) that we have available.
Our clinic reviews client and other files for the purpose of ensuring that we provide high quality services. In addition, external consultants (e.g., auditors, lawyers, practice consultants, voluntary accreditation programs) may on our behalf do audits and continuing quality improvement reviews of our Clinic, including reviewing client files and interviewing our staff.
Clients or other individuals we deal with may have questions about our goods or services after they have been received. We also provide ongoing services for many of our clients over a period of months or years for which our previous records are helpful. We retain our client information for a minimum of seven years after the last contact to enable us to respond to those questions and provide these services.
If Maitri Healing or its assets were to be sold, the purchaser would want to conduct a “due diligence” review of the Clinic’s records to ensure that it is a viable business that has been honestly portrayed to the purchaser. This due diligence may involve some review of our accounting and service files. The purchaser would not be able to remove or record personal information. Before being provided access to the files, the purchaser must provide a written promise to keep all personal information confidential. Only reputable purchasers who have already agree to buy the organization’s business or its assets would be provided access to personal information, and only for the purpose of completing their due diligence search prior to closing the purchase.
You can choose not to be part of some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., by declining to receive notice of special events or opportunities, by paying for your services in advance). However, this does not include instances where we are required by outside governing bodies to divulge such information (e.g., external regulation).
PROTECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION
We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason we have taken the following steps:
Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.
Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers.
Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies.
Electronic information is transmitted either through a direct line or is anonymized or encrypted.
Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us.
RETENTION AND DESTRUCTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information longer than necessary in order to protect your privacy.
We keep our client files for about ten years. Our client and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact information right away. We keep any personal information relating to our general correspondence (i.e., with people who are not clients) newsletters, seminars and marketing activities for about six months after the newsletter ceases publication or a seminar of marketing activity is over.
We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed. Alternatively, we may send some or all of the client file to our client.
ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
You may ask for access to any personal information we hold about you by contacting us as described at the end of this Privacy Policy. Summary information is available on request and we will attempt to respond to the request within 30 days of receipt. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees and may take longer to respond to.
CORRECTING ERRORS
Maitri Healing attempts to ensure that personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date for the purposes for which it is used. If Maitri Healing holds information about you and you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, Maitri Healing will take reasonable steps to correct it.
COMMUNICATING WITH US
You should be aware that any channel of communication, such as e-mail, is not 100% secure, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
Since Maitri Healing regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time without notice. A copy of all amendments will be on file at our offices.
REQUESTS FOR ACCESS
If you have any questions, complaints or wish to access your personal information, please write to our Chief Privacy Officer at ramona@maitrihealing.com
If you are not satisfied with our response, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada can be reached at:
112 KENT STREET, OTTAWA, ONTARIO. K1A 1H3
PHONE (613) 995-8210 TOLL-FREE 1-800-282-1376 FAX (613) 947-6850
TTY (613)992-9190 www.privcom.gc.ca
WEBSITE
For your convenience our website may contain links to other sites, which are not governed by this privacy policy. Our site may also be referenced on or accessible through links contained on other sites, including sites of third party e-procurement networks. However, we have not investigated, and are not responsible for, the privacy practices or content of those sites. Their policies and protections may be different than those offered by Maitri Healing. We encourage you to investigate and review the privacy practices of those sites prior to use. On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimise our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.
EXCEPTIONS
Not withstanding anything else in this privacy policy, Maitri Healing may release account information when it believes that such release is reasonably necessary to (1) comply with law, (2) protect the rights, property, proprietary materials or safety of Maitri Healing other users, or others.
YOUR CONSENT
By using our site, you consent to the terms outlined in the above Privacy Policy. If we find it necessary or desirable to change our privacy policy in the future, we will post changes as soon as they go into effect. If you have any questions or comments about your privacy and Maitri Healing, please let us know on our Contact page.
