Your privacy & personal information is very important to us
At Homewood Health, we are committed to protecting your personal information. Our privacy practices ensure your data is handled with the utmost care, confidentiality, and compliance with Canadian privacy laws. Explore how we safeguard your information and respect your privacy every step of the way.
The content sections of this page cover the following topics:
At Homewood Health respect for the confidentiality and the privacy of our patients, clients, customers and colleagues is a cornerstone of our business. The confidentiality, privacy and security of personal information is assured through Homewood Health’s adherence to the Ten Privacy Principles as defined by the Canadian Standards Association and through compliance with Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and substantially similar provincial privacy legislation. In addition, Homewood Health employees are bound by a Confidentiality Agreement as a condition of employment.
We collect your personal information directly from you, or from the person acting on your behalf. Depending on the treatment or services you access, the personal information that we collect may include, for example, your demographic information such as age, marital status, education status, health card number, psychiatric and health history, records of your interaction with Homewood Health and the services or care that you received during those visits. We only collect information we need to treat or provide service to you. Occasionally, we collect personal information about you from other health service providers, if we have obtained your consent to do so or if the law permits. We strive to keep your personal information as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as possible, taking into account its uses and your interests.
We may use and disclose your personal information to:
We will provide you with access to your records within the timeframe legislated under the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) or an applicable provincial privacy law declared substantially similar. We may also request an extension where provisions allow.
If, after reviewing your records, you demonstrate that they are factually incorrect or incomplete and are able to provide factually correct information, Homewood Health will endeavor to register the correction.
Custodians are not required to correct professional opinions or information received from others. If we are unable to make the correction, you may require that a Statement of Disagreement be attached to your record(s). You may also require that your disagreement, or any corrections that were made, be communicated to others involved in your treatment or services and to those to whom the information was previously released.
(subject to PIPEDA or substantially similar provincial privacy law exceptions)
Information is collected, used or disclosed based on your implied or express consent. While you may withdraw or place limits on your consent, doing so may prevent staff from accurately assessing your health or clinical status and may result in ineffective or insufficient treatment or service. Withdrawal of consent may also result in the funding for treatment or other services being revoked. When disclosing information for healthcare purposes under these circumstances, we must inform the requesting health care provider or referral source that information that might impact your care has been withheld. We may not be able to fulfill your wishes if they impact our ability to deliver health care services to you or if we are legislated to use or disclose the personal information to which you object.
Should this type of concern arise, we will discuss your objections with you. Please speak directly to your service provider, your treatment team or contact Homewood Health’s Privacy Office at (519) 824-1010 ext. 32443 or toll free at (800) 265-8310 ext. 32443.
Your personal information is kept for as long as it remains necessary or relevant for identified purposes, or as required by law. Personal information that is no longer necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or required to be retained by law is destroyed according to Homewood Health policy. Information necessary for research and teaching purposes may be kept indefinitely.
As a patient or client, you may participate in therapy groups. You must not discuss group proceedings outside the group and/or program; to do so is considered a breach of confidentiality and may result in withdrawal from the program or service and/or discharge from Homewood Health. You may be asked to sign a group confidentiality agreement.
Patients and clients have the right to ask for access to their personal information which resides under the custody and control of Homewood Health, subject to PIPEDA or substantially similar provincial privacy law requirements. If you are acting on behalf of another, documentation which supports your authority in this role is required prior to the release of personal information.
A printable version of Homewood Health’s Statement of Information Practices is available.
Upon request, we will inform you of the existence, use and disclosure of your personal information. We will provide access to the information except in circumstances proscribed by the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) or any applicable provincial privacy law which has been declared substantially similar. For example, access may not be provided when doing so would reveal personal information about a third party or could reasonably be expected to threaten the life or security of another individual or where disclosure would reveal confidential commercial information.
You may request documents pertaining to the appointments or services you have received through Homewood Health.
To make an access request, complete, sign and return the Request to Access Personal Information form. A copy of photo identification is required for verification purposes. i.e.: Driver’s license, Age of Majority Card, Passport, etc. **Health cards are not legally acceptable. In the case this poses an issue, please contact the CIM team directly.
Your personal information may be sent directly to others only if a formal request from the third party is accompanied by your written consent, or as directed by law. Your consent must direct Homewood Health specifically to release information, be recently signed by yourself, and the consent must clearly identify to whom the information is to be released. A copy of photo identification is required for verification purposes. i.e.: Driver’s license, Age of Majority Card, Passport, etc. **Health cards are not legally acceptable. In the case this poses an issue, please contact the CIM team directly.
To protect your privacy, Homewood Health will only release information sufficient to fulfill the request and you may limit or withdraw your consent where applicable by law. Disclosures which have already occurred cannot be rescinded or limited. We may request that you confirm or renew your consent for subsequent requests in order to ensure that your circumstances have not changed.
To request that we provide your information to others, complete, sign and return the witnessed Consent to Disclosure to Others form.
In compliance with PIPEDA and provincial legislation, access and disclosure requests may be subject to fees. Where applicable, fee estimates will be provided.
We are pleased to answer any questions you may have regarding requests for records. Direct questions regarding:
Individual, Family and Workplace Health Records
i.e. Counselling, Homewood Clinics, Disability Management, Occupational Health, Specialty Services, etc.
Clinical Information Management – (CIM-HHI)
Homewood Health Inc.
150 Delhi Street
Guelph, Ontario N1E 6K9
Telephone: (800) 265-8310 Ext. 43113
Fax: (800) 427-9295
Email: requestforrecords@homewoodhealth.com
In-Patient and Community Services Records
i.e. Homewood Health Centre, The Residence, Ravensview, CADS, ACTT, etc.
Clinical Information Management (CIM-ICS)
Homewood Health Centre
150 Delhi Street
Guelph, Ontario N1E 6K9
Telephone: (519) 824-1010 Ext. 32511
Fax: (519) 767-3552
Email: him@homewoodhealth.com
Client data is stored in Canada in our own data centers, behind enterprise class firewalls. Only authorized providers are able to access information to provide client care. Homewood Health’s Information Technology department upgrades the security capabilities of the information systems on an ongoing basis. Access controls for staff, which are based on the staff job roles, limits the staff members’ access to client records on a need-to-know basis to perform their job duties. The organization’s system uses passwords and encryption to protect the system and electronic devices from inappropriate access.
Our Member Area portals are secured with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), directing visitors to “https://” websites where appropriate. SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private.
Consult your web browser to confirm SSL is in use. Portals are audited routinely to ensure they are secure and pose no risk to client data.
We do not solicit or keep any information when you browse the public-access areas of our website. We use “cookies” only to rapidly display pages you have already consulted and to make our website more user-friendly for you. We never use cookies to compile information about you without your knowledge.
We use a tool called Google Analytics to produce general, anonymized and aggregate information about the use of this site. The data that Google Analytics accesses is not personally identifiable, but captures each registration as a unique (numbered) user.
Google Analytics collects data such as how often unique users visit this site, the pages visited (and when), interactions with assessments and/or resources, and other sites the user visited prior to coming to this site. In turn, we use the information we receive from Google Analytics for improvement of our site and the services we provide.
Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.
To find out more, please visit: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites?hl=en-GB&gl=uk
Homewood will not send you commercial electronic messages without your consent and we will not share or provide third parties access to emails that have been collected from Homewood email opt-in pages. Users can unsubscribe from Homewood email program, including emails which contain commercial electronic messages, at any time.
We remind our Users that no collection or transmission of information such as email addresses over the Internet or other publicly accessible communications networks can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and therefore, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any such information.
We reserve the right to make changes to this notice at any time and make the new privacy practices effective for all personal information.
Your consent to receive SMS messages cannot be shared with third parties or affiliates.
