Waterloo Eye Institute privacy policy

The Waterloo Eye Institute is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of personal and patient health information consistent with all applicable legislation. We are committed to ensuring that all your personal health information under our care, custody and control is regarded as confidential, treated with sensitivity and available only to authorized users.

The Waterloo Eye Institute's faculty, optometrists, staff and students are trained and authorized to use your personal health information. Other consultants and agencies such as computer consultants, accountants, lawyers, credit card companies, collection agencies and university employees may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to your personal information. We have ensured that they follow appropriate privacy principles.

We collect, use and disclose personal/personal health information in accordance with applicable laws in order to provide eye care services to you, to support the administration of eye care services, to conduct research and collect statistics, to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and for teaching purposes.

We may use your personal/personal health information:

• To provide you with appropriate eye care and advice on treatment options
• To provide ongoing eye care and identify changes over time
• To advise you that your eye care needs should be reviewed
• To invoice third parties such as OHIP and private insurance on your behalf
• To comply with legal or regulatory requirements 
• To train optometry undergraduate and graduate students
• To conduct clinical research (with your consent)
• To make, change or notify you about appointments
• To provide information about events, services, products or vision health, if you have given consent

Various government agencies and regulatory bodies have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as part of their mandates. In the course of performing their duties, they may have limited access to your personal/personal health information.

To provide you with some services, we may need to communicate some of your personal information and/or personal/personal health information to other regulated health practitioners, technicians, or laboratories. It would be rare for us to communicate your information without your implied consent, but this might occur in an emergency.

The Waterloo Eye Institute understands the importance of protecting your personal/personal health information. Some of the steps we have taken to protect it include: 

• Employee training is provided
• Privacy agreements are established with outside suppliers
• Information is under supervision or secured in a restricted area
• Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes
• Electronic information is transmitted through a direct line or is encrypted
• Paper information is destroyed by shredding
• Hardware containing electronic information is physically destroyed

We retain your personal/personal health information to provide ongoing eye care and to answer any questions you may have about services. By law, your health records must be kept for a minimum of 10 years; in reality, your records are likely to be kept indefinitely. 

You have the right to see your personal/personal health information. We will assist you in identifying what information we have and in understanding that information. You also have the right to ask for incorrect factual information to be corrected. 

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, except in specific instances where the law requires the information to be disclosed. We will discontinue the use or disclosure of your personal/personal health information after receiving your written revocation of your consent.

This web page outlines the main provisions of the Waterloo Eye Institute's privacy policy. Our privacy policy is aligned with the University of Waterloo's information and privacy policy, which conforms to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA). This policy can be accessed electronically (for information only), and authoritative copies are held by the University of Waterloo Secretariat and Office of General Counsel. Please direct your inquiries to: 

University of Waterloo Privacy Officer 
fippa@uwaterloo.ca

Waterloo Eye Institute Privacy Officer 
Inta Bregzis
University of Waterloo School of Optometry & Vision Science
Phone: 519-888-4567, ext. 41106 
inta.bregzis@uwaterloo.ca

If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, please make it in writing to both the University of Waterloo and Waterloo Eye Institute privacy officers using the email addresses above. They will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure it is investigated promptly and provide you with a formal decision in writing.

For more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario oversees Ontario's privacy legislation. The Commissioner's office also assists Ontarians with complaints or privacy-related disputes.