Privacy Policy

CONSENT TO USE AND STORAGE OF PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION

At Bédard Couture Dental Clinic, we are committed to maintaining a professional, safe, and trustworthy work environment. In order to provide optimized oral health care and excellent service, we use, store, and analyze certain personal health information that we (a) collect from you, (b) generate through diagnostic tests and treatment planning, or (c) receive from your other healthcare providers.

Under no circumstances will we collect, disclose, or use your information without your knowledge or consent. Only individuals with a clinical need (or related administrative need) to know information will be authorized to access it. Similarly, we adhere to the principle that only the minimum necessary information required for a task or function will be disclosed. Our staff has received training on the importance of maintaining the security and confidentiality of your information.

Julian Perez has been designated as the Data and Privacy Officer. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact Julian Perez at julian.perez@dentalcorp.ca. Your feedback is appreciated.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

We typically collect several categories of information. The first includes personal details such as name, address, contact information, insurance details, and financial and billing information, which may include credit card numbers and similar details. Any collection of credit card information is done in accordance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

We also collect and produce personal health information including:

• Medical history
• Medications
• Dental history
• Dentist visit records, recall exams, and appointments
• Diagnostic results and test outcomes
• Study models, charts, and impressions
• Treatment recommendations, plans, and progress notes
• Consent conversation records and signed consent forms where applicable
• Referral reports and specialist recommendations

HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?

We believe it's important for you to understand how we use your information. Firstly, we collect, use, and disclose information about you solely for the following purposes:

• Providing safe and effective patient care
• Ensuring high-quality service
• Assessing your health needs
• Advising you on treatment options
• Establishing and maintaining communication with you, including scheduling and appointment reminders
• Allowing us to communicate with you
• Communicating with other healthcare providers, including specialists and general dentists involved in your care
• Ensuring effective tracking of treatments, care, and billing
• Conducting teaching and demonstrations anonymously
• Completing and submitting dental fee claims and treatment estimates for evaluation and payment by third parties
• Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, including communication with provincial dental regulatory bodies, the Privacy Commissioner, or any legislative review board as required by law
• Compliance with a court order in judicial proceedings
• Billing for goods and services
• Processing payments by credit card, cash, and personal cheque
• Recovering unpaid accounts
• Sending surveys related to our activities and services
• For internal management purposes such as resource planning, policy development, quality assurance, and human resource management
• Compliance with regulatory requirements and the law in generall
• If the decision is made to sell the clinic:
  • Allowing potential buyers to evaluate the dental clinic
  • Allowing potential buyers to conduct due diligence for a sale

Although the above list is extensive, we believe it is best to be thorough. However, many of the items listed above are likely not relevant to you.

Before using or disclosing personal information for a purpose other than those identified above, we will inform you of this new purpose and proceed only with your consent.

HOW ARE YOUR INFORMATION STORED AND WHO HAS ACCESS?

Your information may be stored physically (records, models, etc.). In such cases, they are either kept by staff or stored in a locked and secure filing cabinet or safe. Digital information may be stored on encrypted file servers in secure locations or access-controlled environments. Digital information is password-protected and stored on systems that log audit trails in case unauthorized access needs to be investigated. Our systems are protected by hardware and software security measures that comply with industry standards.

We may enter into agreements with specialized third-party providers for data storage and protection. Sometimes, this data is securely stored in the cloud, which may include locations outside Canada. In these cases, only those contractually obligated to secure and protect your data will have access to it. We will only enter into contractual agreements with providers who adhere to Canadian standards and legal requirements for the storage and protection of personal health information.

We may also share aggregated and non-identifiable data with research institutions or third-party providers to advance oral healthcare. This practice is explicitly permitted by law as it poses minimal or no risk to patients but can significantly improve healthcare efficiency. We will only share such data with individuals or providers who enter into necessary agreements to preserve information confidentiality and safeguard data.

WE WORK WITH EXPERTS TO BETTER PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

To meet the complex and evolving requirements of dental practice and dental clinic administration, we collaborate with experts to improve the healthcare services we provide and to make the administration of our dental clinics more efficient.

In addition to each healthcare provider's independent obligation to respect and protect your privacy rights, our dentists and healthcare providers partner with SERVICES DENTAIRES S. SGRO INC., which, among other things, serves as our designated custodian of patient health information. Services de santé DCC (Québec) Inc. provides information management, administration, and technical services to our clinic.

As an information manager, SSD uses industry best practices and technologies as well as a robust cybersecurity program to protect patient privacy and ensure compliance with all local and federal laws.