Privacy Policy

Privacy of personal information is an important principle to SYMETRICS. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. This privacy policy document describes our 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, and home address or phone number, their health, health history, health conditions, and health services received by them). 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, SYMETRICS , includes Physiotherapy, Chiropractic, Integrated Treatment, Massage Therapy. We use a number of consultants, agencies and staff that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold. These include John Davis RPT, Danielle Cousineau RPT,  Ashley McLellan RPT, Cheryl Alderdice RPT, Chris Sheremeta RPT, Dr. David Chambers DC, Deborah Gurash, RMT, Ali Prevost PT MSC (PT), Marie-Josée Forget, PT, MCPA, Jody Luesby, PT, BSc(Kin), MCPA, physiotherapy assistants, clerical staff, volunteers and students. 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

Like all rehabilitation clinics, we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients.
Our clinic procedures are to communicate verbally or written to your family physician. Other cases may require communication to the following parties; lawyer, insurance company, rehabilitation consultant, employer.
For our clients, the primary purposes for collecting personal information are as follows: to assess and provide health services as required necessary for our client and process correct billing of client.    Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include the following: Personal Characteristics: name, home, work, cell phone contact information, health care information, Insurance benefit coverage, age, and language. Health: health history, health conditions, assessment results, diagnoses, health services provided to or received by the person, health information collected in the course of providing services, prognosis or other opinions formed during assessment and treatment, compliance with assessment and treatment, reasons for discharge and discharge condition and recommendations   Activities: Transaction history with the organization, occupation/profession/opinions expressed by the person, work hours, involvement with organization, letters written to the organization by the person, views, evaluations or opinions by the organization about the person.

When we investigate, or assess a person for someone else, (e.g, a client referred to the clinic by their doctor or Motor Vehicle Accident client) our primary purposes for collecting personal information are as follows: to assess and provide health services as required necessary for our client and to process correct billing of client.  Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include the following: Personal Characteristics: name, home, work, cell phone contact information, health care information, Insurance benefit coverage, age, and language. Health: health history, health conditions, assessment results, diagnoses, health services provided to or received by the person, health information collected in the course of providing services, prognosis or other opinions formed during assessment and treatment, compliance with assessment and treatment, reasons for discharge and discharge condition and recommendations   Activities: Transaction history with the organization, occupation/profession/opinions expressed by the person, work hours, involvement with organization, letters written to the organization by the person, views, evaluations or opinions by the organization about the person.

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 services that are not paid for at the time and to collect unpaid accounts. We have the authority to collect information for this purpose:

• Verbal consent that will be documented,Written consent
• Investigation of breach of law/contract and consent would compromise (if payment not made)
• You can choose not to be part of some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., 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.
• 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 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 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. Medical client files are maintained for 10 years after last treatment date. Children’s files are maintained for 10 years after child turns 18 yrs of age.
Accounting client files are maintained for 7 years after last documented correspondence or billing. 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 destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding in a secure environment by staff. We destroy electronic information by deleting it. Alternatively, we may send some or the entire client file to our client.

You Can Look at Your Information

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. Often all you have to 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 this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests.
If there is a problem, we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days if at all 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 factual 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 have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

Do You Have a Concern With Your Privacy or Our Privacy Policy?

Our Information Officers, Katie Scott and Danielle Cousineau, can be reached at 497-1975,  to address any questions or concerns you might have about your privacy or this privacy policy. If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Information Officer(s). They 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.
For more general inquiries, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes.

The Privacy Commissioner 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