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Privacy Policy

Privacy of personal information is an important principle to Tram-Blair Denture & Snoring Clinic. 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 are also 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.
 

WHO WE ARE

Our organization, Tram-Blair Denture & Snoring Clinic, includes at the time of writing two Denturists. 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 dentists, denturists, computer consultants, accountants, and lawyers. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles.
 

WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION: Primary Purposes About Clients

Like all denturists, 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 denturist treatment including dentures, mouth guards, snoring appliances and bleaching kits. For example, we collect information about a client’s health history, physical condition and function and dental history in order to help us assess what their health needs are, to advise them of their options and then to provide the health care they choose to have. A second primary 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 purposes for collecting personal information are to make them aware of denturist services 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 list.
 

About Contract Staff, Volunteers and Students

For people who are contracted to do work for us (e.g., temporary workers) our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to ensure we can contact them in the future (e.g., for further work) and for necessary work-related communication (e.g., sending out paychecks, year-end tax receipts). Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include home addresses and telephone numbers. It is rare for us to collect such information without prior consent, but it might happen in the case of a health emergency (e.g., a SARS outbreak) or to investigate a possible breach of law (e.g., if a theft were to occur in the clinic). If contract staff, volunteers or students wish a letter of reference or an evaluation, we will collect information about their work related performance and provide a report as authorized by them.
 

WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION: Related and Secondary Purposes

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 and services that were not paid for at the time, to process credit card payments or to collect unpaid accounts.
  • To advise clients that their product or service should be reviewed (e.g., to ensure a product is still functioning properly and appropriate for their current needs and to consider modifications or replacement).
  • To advise clients and others of special events or opportunities (e.g., 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, including assessing the performance of our staff. 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.
  • Denturists are regulated by the College of Denturists of Ontario who may inspect our records and interview our staff as a part of their regulatory activities in the public interest. In addition, as professionals, we will report serious misconduct, incompetence or incapacity of other practitioners, whether they belong to other organizations or our own. Also, our organization believes that it should report information suggesting serious illegal behaviour to the authorities. External regulators have their own strict privacy obligations. Sometimes these reports include personal information about our clients, or other individuals, to support the concern (e.g., improper services). 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., lawyers, accountants) who will investigate the matter and report back to us.
If Tram-Blair Denture & Snoring Clinic 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 these 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.
 
You can choose not to be part of some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., by declining to receive notice of special opportunities, by paying for your services in advance). We do not, however, have much choice about some of these related or secondary purposes (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. All of our cell phones are digital, which signals are more difficult to intercept.
  • 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 too long 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 information relating to our general correspondence ( i.e. with people who are not clients) newsletter, seminars and marketing activities for about six months after the newsletter ceases publication or a seminar or 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.