Privacy Policy for Dr. Mandeep Gurm Inc
This policy outlines our commitment to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal health information, as required by the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) of British Columbia, the BC Code of Conduct for Psychologists and other relevant legislation.
1. Accountability
At Dr. Mandeep Gurm Inc, we are committed to being accountable for the personal health information we collect, use, and disclose. We have designated a Privacy Officer to ensure our compliance with this policy and with PIPA.
Privacy Officer:
Name: Mandeep Gurm
Contact Information: doctorgurm@gmail.com and 236-455-4279
We are responsible for the personal information we hold, including information transferred to third parties for processing and administrative services.
2. Identifying the Purpose for Collection
We collect your personal health information to provide you with high-quality psychological services. The information we collect is necessary to:
Evaluate and assess your needs.
Formulate a treatment plan and provide therapy.
Complete a psychological assessment.
Communicate with you for appointment scheduling, follow-ups, and other service-related matters.
Administer and manage our practice, including billing and payment processing.
Fulfill legal and regulatory requirements.
We will explain the purpose for collecting your information at the time of collection. If we intend to use your information for a new purpose, we will obtain your informed consent beforehand. We will make reasonable efforts to ensure your personal information is accurate and complete for its intended use.
3. Obtaining Consent
We collect, use, and disclose your personal health information only with your informed consent, except where required or permitted by law.
Express Consent: For the initial collection and use of your personal information for therapy or assessment, we will obtain your express consent, which may be in writing or verbal.
Implied Consent: Your request for psychological services and your continued participation in therapy and assessment constitutes implied consent for us to collect, use, and share your information with our professional staff and for billing purposes.
Exceptions to Consent: There are specific, limited situations where we are legally and ethically required to disclose your information without your consent. These include:
Where there is a clear and imminent risk of suicide to you or another person.
Where we suspect or are informed of child abuse or neglect.
Where you disclose that a health professional has advised you to stop driving due to a medical issue.
Where a court order (subpoena) or other legal mandate requires us to release information.
Where you report a sexual offense by another regulated health professional.
If the College of Health and Care Professionals of BC requests my records.
You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions. We will discuss the implications of withdrawing consent with you.
4. Limiting Collection, Use, and Disclosure
We collect, use, and disclose only the personal information that is necessary for the purposes identified. We do not use or disclose your personal information for any purpose other than what it was collected for, unless you provide your consent or the use is authorized by law.
5. Retaining and Destroying Information
We retain your personal health information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet our legal, ethical, and professional obligations. This includes a minimum retention period of 7 years from the date of last service, or for a minor, 7 years after the minor reaches the age of 19.
When the retention period has passed, we will securely destroy or de-identify the information to prevent unauthorized access. This includes shredding paper records and permanently deleting electronic files.
6. Protecting Your Information
We protect your personal health information with administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. These measures are designed to prevent unauthorized access, use, disclosure, or loss of your information. Our safeguards include:
Physical Safeguards: Locked filing cabinets, restricted access to our office, and secure storage of paper records.
Technical Safeguards: Passwords, encryption, and up-to-date software.
Administrative Safeguards: Staff confidentiality agreements, training on privacy policies, and a strict "need-to-know" access policy for records.
While we take all reasonable steps to protect your information, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. In the case of a privacy breach, we will immediately correct the breach and complete an assessment to see what information has been accessed. If your information has been accessed in a breach you will be informed as soona s it is feasible.
7. Your Right to Access and Correction
You have the right to request access to and correction of your personal health information. You may request to see the records we hold about you and request a correction if you believe the information is inaccurate or incomplete. Your request must be made in writing, and we may need to verify your identity. We will respond to your request within 30 days. If we are authorized or required by PIPA to refuse access to information, we will inform you in writing about the reasons why and any other steps that are available to you.
8. Questions and Complaints
If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact our Privacy Officer.
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated and you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia at:
OIPC BC
Website: www.oipc.bc.ca
Phone: 250-387-5629