Privacy for Patients and Providers
At the office of Dr. Lara Hastings (referred herein as the “Practice”), we are committed to protecting your privacy and safeguarding your personal health information as a visitor, patient or website user. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you of our practices relating to the collection, use, disclosure and protection of your personal health information. We urge you to read this Policy carefully and to check back periodically as this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of organizations or websites other than the Practice.
Information Collected
“Personal Health information” means identifying information about an individual in oral or recorded form, if the information,
(a) relates to the physical or mental health of the individual, including information that consists of the health history of the individual’s family,
(b) relates to the providing of health care to the individual, including the identification of a person as a provider of health care to the individual,
(c) relates to payments or eligibility for health care, or eligibility for coverage for health care, in respect of the individual,
(d) is the individual’s identifying numbers (such as Social Security or Medicaid numbers), or
(e) identifies an individual’s substitute decision-maker.
Personal Health Information is collected by the Practice when you provide it to us for the purpose of receiving a response from the Practice. In addition, if you choose to contact the Practice by email, telephone or otherwise, we may keep a record of that correspondence so that we may fully address the subject matter.
Consent
Your provision of Personal Health Information, as well as the use of the Practice’s website and services offered by our site, constitutes implied consent for the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Health Information for all of the identified purposes.
If at anytime you wish to withdraw your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Health Information (for the purposes listed below) please contact Dr. Lara Hastings.
Use Of Personal Health Information
The Practice may use your Personal Health Information for the following purposes:
- To develop and maintain our relationship with you and to communicate with you. For example, we may send you a responding email;
- If you indicated that you were interested in receiving information from the Practice, we may send you information about services that we feel may be of interest to you; and
- In accordance with applicable legislation, the Practice may also use Personal Health Information if we have reasonable grounds to believe the information could be useful when investigating a contravention of a federal, provincial or foreign law or in order to protect or defend a legal interest.
Disclosure Of Personal Health Information
The Practice will not sell, license, trade or rent your Personal Health Information to or with others. The Practice will disclose your Personal Health Information to third parties:
- Where you have specifically given the Practice your consent to disclose your Personal Health Information for a designated purpose;
- Who are acting on behalf of the Practice as service providers, solely to enable us to more efficiently provide you with the service you have requested from us;
- As required by law, including by an order of any court, institution or body with jurisdiction or authority to compel the production of information, or in order to protect or defend a legal interest; or
- In connection with a corporate re-organization, merger or amalgamation with another entity, or a sale of all or a substantial portion of our assets provided that the Personal Health Information disclosed continues to be used for the purposes permitted by this Privacy Policy by the entity acquiring the information.
There are situations in which health care custodians may disclose Personal Health Information without the consent of an individual. These situations include those in which the health and safety of an individual is at risk.
Links
The Practice’s website may provide links to other websites. While we try to link only to websites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, please understand that we are not responsible for the content of, or the privacy practices employed by, other organizations or websites. This Privacy Policy applies only to the services offered by Dr. Lara Hastings.
Security
The security of your Personal Health Information is important to the Practice. We take technical, contractual, administrative, and physical security steps to protect the Personal Health Information that you provide to the Practice. We instruct our employees with access to your Personal Health Information that it is to be used only in adherence with the principles set forth in this Privacy Policy and the applicable laws.
Cookies
When you visit our website please note that cookies may be used on some pages of our site. “Cookies” are small text files placed on your hard drive that assist us in providing a more customized website experience.
It is our intent to use cookies to make navigation of our website easier and to facilitate efficient web-based procedures.
Updates And Changes
You can help us maintain the accuracy of your Personal Health Information by notifying us of any changes to your information. To correct, to confirm whether or not we have a record of your Personal Health Information or to update your Personal Health Information, you may contact Dr. Hastings, indicating all email addresses that you may have given us.
The Practice reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time without notice.
Legislation
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) govern the manner in which personal health information may be collected, used and disclosed.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about your privacy or our use of your Personal Health Information, you may contact us via our webform. We will inform you of our complaint procedure and work towards resolving the situation. If a complaint is found to be justified, appropriate measures will be taken including, if necessary, amending our practices and procedures.