Cochrane
Temiskaming
Children's Treatment Centre
PRIVACY POLICY
Bill
of Rights and Outline of Responsibilities for Families and Children
Privacy
of personal information is an important principle to the Cochrane
Temiskaming Children’s Treatment Centre.
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
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
ARE WE?
The
Cochrane Temiskaming Children’s Treatment Centre provides services to
Children with physical disabilities and as well as those experiencing fine
and gross motor difficulties. The
Centre employs Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech
Language Pathologists, Social Workers as well as other Administrative and
Clinical Staff. We also from
time to time, contract services to various private practitioners such as a
Speech Pathologist, an Occupational Therapist, etc.
We have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy
principles.
WE COLLECT PERSONAL
INFORMATION:
PRIMARY PURPOSES
Like
all Children’s Treatment Centres, we collect, use and disclose personal
information in order to service our Clients and their families and to
manage our Staff and Volunteers.
For
our Clients, the primary purposes for collecting personal information are
as follows: Provision of Therapy Services, Provision of Recreation/Leisure
Services, Provision of Living Skills Services.
Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those
purposes include the following: Name, home contact information, Ontario
health card number (for some clinics), age, language, health history,
health conditions, diagnoses, assessment results, health services provided
to or received, 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.
For
our Staff, volunteers and students, the primary purposes for collecting
personal information are as follows:
To manage the Human Resources of the Centre.
Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those
purposes include the following: name, home contact information, health
insurance number, social insurance number, insurance benefit coverage,
language, education/training, transaction history with the organization,
profession, work hours, criminal police check, disciplinary actions
against the individual, intentions, letters written to the Centre by the
individual, evaluations about the individual.
WE COLLECT PERSONAL
INFORMATION: SECONDARY AND RELATED PURPOSES
Like
most organizations, the Children’s Treatment Centre also collects, uses
and discloses information for purposes related to or secondary to our
primary purposes.
-
To call clients back for a program or clinic.
-
To manage wait lists
-
To advocate for additional funding
-
To communicate with the Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) in our catchment area re: billings and services for children within the School Health Support Services Program
-
To determine if a child is eligible for a particular research study
-
To determine a client’s eligibility for a particular therapy or recreation group
-
To send clients Newsletters and information about new programs and clinics offered at the Centre.
-
To review client files to ensure that we are providing high quality services.
-
To assess the performance of our Staff, Students and Volunteers.
External
Consultants such as independent financial auditors, reviewers from
Professional Colleges, may review client files and interview Staff
Members.
Physical
Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists and
Social Workers are regulated by their respective Professional Colleges 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.
Various government agencies such as Canada Customs and Revenue
Agency, Human Rights Commission have the authority to review our files and
interview our staff as a part of their mandates.
·
The
cost of therapy equipment, orthotics, etc. is sometimes paid for by third
parties such as Assistive Devices Program, private insurance.
These third-party payers often have your consent or legislative
authority to direct us to collect and disclose to them certain information
in order to demonstrate client entitlement to this funding.
· The Centre retains our client information for a minimum of ten years after the last contact to enable us to respond to questions from you or other individuals about the services you received. Our regulatory Colleges also require us to retain our client records.
PROTECTING PERSONAL
INFORMATION
The
Children’s Treatment Centre understands the importance of protecting
personal information. For
that reason, we have taken the following steps:
-
Paper information is maintained in a restricted area.
-
Electronic hardware is either under supervision or in a restricted area at all times. 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 anonymized.
-
Staff are instructed 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.
DESTRUCTION OF PERSONAL
INFORMATION
We
destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it.
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. 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 QUESTION?
Our
Information Officer,
Mary MacKay, can be reached at:
733 Ross Avenue East,
Timmins, ON P4N 8S8
Tel:
(705) 264-4700
1-800-575-3210
Fax: (705) 268-3585
She
will attempt to answer any questions or concerns you might have.
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 bodies:
College of Audiologists
and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario
160
Bloor Street East, Suite 1125, Toronto, Ontario
M4W 1B9
Tel: (416) 975-5347
1-800-993-9459
Fax: (416) 975-8394
Internet: caslpo@caslpo.com
College of
Physiotherapists of Ontario
230
Richmond St. W., 10th Floor, Toronto, ON
M5V 1V6
Tel: (416) 591-3828
1-800-583-5885
Internet:
www.collegept.org
College of Occupational
Therapists of Ontario
20
Bay Street, Suite 900, Toronto, ON M5J
2N8
Tel: (416) 214-1177
Fax: (416) 214-1173
Internet: www.coto.org
Ontario College of Social
Workers and Social Service Workers
80 Bloor Street West, Suite 700, Toronto, ON
M5S 2V1
Tel:
(416) 972-9882
1-877-828-9380
Fax: (416) 972-1512
Internet:
www.ocswssw.org
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.
For
more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada
oversees the administration of the privacy legislation.
The Commissioner also acts as a kind of omboudsman for privacy
disputes.
The
Information and Privacy Commissioner can
be reached at:
112 Kent Street, Ottawa,
ON
K1A 1H3
Tel
(613) 995-8210
1-800-282-1376
Fax: (613) 992-9190
Internet: www.privcom.gc.ca
/mmprivacypolicy
Registered Charity #118866870RR001 (for donation purposes)
733 Ross Avenue East
Timmins, Ontario P4N 8S8
Telephone (705) 264-4700 * Toll Free 1-800-575-3210 * Fax (705)
268-3585
Satellite
Offices: Kapuskasing (ISNC) (705) 335-4741 * Kirkland Lake (CTC/ISNC)
(705) 567-4383
New Liskeard (CTC/ISNC) (705) 647-8558