Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY & WRITTEN STATEMENT OF INFORMATION PRACTICES

Privacy of personal information is an important principle to Guelph Performance Inc. 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, and opinion or evaluation of an individual).  Personal information is to be contrasted with business information (e.g., in individual’s business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.

We collect your personal health information directly from you, or from a person acting on your behalf.  Examples of the type of personal health information that we collect may include, your name, date of birth, address, health history, records of your visits to Guelph Performance Inc. and details of the treatment that you received during your visits.  We may sometimes collect personal health information about you from other sources, if we have obtained your consent to do so, or if the law permits. For our clients, the primary purpose for collecting personal information is to provide treatment. A secondary 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 clients 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 we have no reason to believe the message is not genuine).

We utilize JaneApp, an online scheduling and record keeping software. This software is secure and complies with Canadian privacy laws, and with the guidelines set out by our professional regulators and associations.

Who We Are

Guelph Performance inc. includes at this time of writing, two co-owners (an Athletic Therapist / RMT and a Nutrition Coach), one other clinical athletic therapist, one clinical physiotherapist, one clinical support person and several field athletic therapists. We use a number of consultants and agencies that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold.  These include bookkeeping & accounting professionals, credit card companies, online software management & others.  We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible.  We also have their assurance that they follow the appropriate privacy principles.

Uses and Disclosures of Personal Health Information:

We may use and disclose your personal health information for the following purposes:

• Treat and care for you; internally discuss your treatment and care when relevant
  • Client files will be made available to other Health Care Professionals at Guelph Performance Therapy if they are providing your care. This allows for continued care in your treatment plan and will be shared with no other reason then for your treatment.
• Contact other Health Care Practitioners that are caring for you – with your permission;
• Receive or directly invoice for your treatment and care (e.g. private insurer);
  • Information will be used to communicate with third party payers with your consent only.
• Contact you to discuss your treatment, payment of invoices, or to inquire about your condition and if further services are required, or to inform you of special opportunities at the clinic / gym;
• Plan, administer and manage our internal operations;
• Conduct risk management and quality improvement activities;
• Comply with legal and regulatory requirements;
• Fulfill other purposes permitted or required by law;

You can withdraw your consent for some of the above uses and disclosures (subject to legal exceptions) by contacting our contact person.

If Guelph Performance Inc. 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 agreed 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.

Massage Therapists are regulated by the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario who may inspect our records and interview staff as a part of their regulatory activities in the public interest. Also, like all organizations, various government agencies (e.g., Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Information and Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, etc.) have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as a part of their mandates.  In these circumstances, we may consult with professionals (e.g., accountants, lawyers) who will investigate the matter and report back to us.

Protecting Personal Information:

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal health and financial information from theft, loss, unauthorized access, copying, modification, use, disclosure, and disposal.

We conduct internal review to monitor and manage our privacy compliance.

We take steps to ensure that everyone who performs services for us (Guelph Performance Inc. contractors) protects your privacy and only uses your personal health information for the purposes you consented. As such:

• Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area. Once scanned into our software, paper information is cross shredded and disposed of appropriately.
• Electronic hardware is always either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.  In addition, passwords are used on computers.
• Staff is 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 our services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies.  However, we do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy.

We keep our client files for at least ten years, or in the case of a minor, for 10 years following their 18^th birthday.

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 the client file to our client.

Your Rights:

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you.  Often all you must do is ask. We can help you identify what records we might have about you.  We will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., short forms, technical language, etc.). We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with access.  We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests. We may ask you to put your request in writing.  If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days if possible, and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access.

If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected.  This applies to information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we made a mistake, we will still agree to include our file in a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

Contact Us:

Our Information Officer / Health Information Custodian is Alana Gulka, CAT(C), RMT

To find out more about our privacy protection practices, or raise any concerns, contact our contact person at:

Tel No: 519-957-2636                      E-mail: alana@guelphperformance.com

If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Information Officer.  She will acknowledge receipt of your complaint; ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.

If you have a concern about the professionalism or competence of our services or the mental or physical capacity of any of our professional staff we would ask you to discuss those concerns with us.  However, if we cannot satisfy your concerns, you are entitled to complain to our regulatory body / association.

In the case that Alana Gulka experiences an emergency or is otherwise incapacitated as the Health Information Custodian, another Regulated Healthcare Practitioner will be appointed, and will act in good faith according to these privacy principals.

Canadian Athletic Therapists Association

400 5^th Avenue S.W. Suite 300, Calgary, AB, T2P 0L6

Tel: (403) 509-2282, Toll Free: (888) 509-2282, Fax: (403) 509-2280, info@athletictherapy.org, https://athletictherapy.org

College of Massage Therapists of Ontario

1867 Younge St, Suite 810, Toronto, ON, M4S 1Y5

Tel: (416) 489-2626, Toll Free: (800) 465-1933, Fax: (416) 489-2625, cmto@cmto.com, www.cmto.com

You have the right to file a complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario if you think we have violated your rights. The Commissioner can be reached at:

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

Tel: Toronto Area: 416-326-3333   Long Distance: 1-800-387-0073 Fax:  416-325-9195

This policy is made under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.  That is a complex Act and provides some additional exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detailed to set out here.  There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above.

June 2021