Privacy Policy

Your Privacy Matters

Your trust is essential to us. We collect personal details — including your name, contact information, health history, and appointment preferences — solely to provide clinical care, schedule visits, and communicate with you about your treatment.

Information We Collect

• Identity & contact: name, address, phone, email, date of birth.
• Health information: medical history, current concerns, symptoms, treatment notes, and any imaging or clinical reports you share.
• Insurance & billing: insurer, policy number, billing address (only when you choose to submit through us).
• Appointment & communication records: session notes, emails, messages, and visit history.
• Website usage: browser type, pages viewed, and basic analytics — see “Cookies” below.

How We Use Your Information

Your information allows us to:

• Confirm and manage appointments
• Provide clinical assessment, treatment planning, and ongoing care
• Personalise your treatment based on your history and goals
• Process payment and produce receipts for insurance reimbursement
• Comply with regulatory and legal record-keeping obligations
• Send you appointment reminders and (only if you opt in) clinic updates or offers

Sharing Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share information only where:

• Within your care team — when more than one practitioner at Essential Health Clinic is involved in your treatment plan.
• With service providers — JaneApp (booking & clinical records), Stripe / payment processors, secure email and SMS delivery providers — all under written confidentiality and data-protection agreements.
• When you direct us — e.g. to send reports to your family doctor, insurer, or another health practitioner.
• When required by law — to comply with legal process, regulatory bodies (CCO, CMTO, CPO, OOA, CRPO), or to prevent serious risk of harm.

Data Security

We take reasonable physical, administrative, and technical steps to protect your information — including encrypted storage, access controls, secure clinic premises, and trusted service providers. Despite our efforts, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Retention

Health records are retained for the period required by your practitioner's regulatory college — generally a minimum of 10 years from your last visit (or, for minors, 10 years past the age of majority). After that period, records are securely destroyed unless legal retention applies.

Cookies & Website Analytics

Our website uses cookies and basic analytics to improve the browsing experience and understand which pages are useful. You can adjust your browser settings to refuse cookies at any time. We do not use cookies to track health information.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal and health information we hold about you
• Request a correction if information is inaccurate or incomplete
• Withdraw consent to specific uses (such as marketing communications) at any time
• Request information about how your data has been used or shared
• File a complaint with our Privacy Officer or with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be communicated through the website and, where appropriate, by direct notice to existing patients.