Privacy Policy

Who we are & the scope of this policy

ProCare Pharmacy & Medical Clinic (“ProCare”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) operates a community pharmacy and a family medical clinic at 10663 113 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5H 3H7, Canada, and the website procaredowntown.ca. We are committed to protecting the privacy of our patients, customers, and website visitors, and to handling personal and health information responsibly.

As a pharmacy and medical clinic, our pharmacist and physicians are “custodians” of “health information” under Alberta's Health Information Act (HIA). Our handling of your information is governed by, as applicable:

• The Health Information Act (HIA) (Alberta) - for health information created or collected in the course of providing pharmacy and clinical care;
• The Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) (Alberta) - for other personal information we handle as a private-sector organization (for example, general enquiries and employment matters);
• The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) (federal) - where it applies to personal information collected in the course of commercial activity; and
• Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) - which governs the commercial electronic messages we send.

This policy explains what we collect, why, how we use and disclose it, and the choices and rights you have. It applies to information collected through this website and, together with our in-clinic and in-pharmacy privacy practices, to information collected in person.

What information we collect

Through this website. We collect only the information you choose to submit through our online forms and requests, which may include:

• Appointment booking: your name, phone number, email address, preferred provider, date and time, and the reason for your visit;
• New-patient registration / waitlist: your name, contact details, date of birth, and information relevant to accepting you as a patient;
• Prescription refill requests: your name, date of birth, Alberta Personal Health Number (PHN), medication name(s) and details, prescriber, and pharmacy or contact information needed to process the refill;
• General enquiries: your name, contact details, and any message or details you choose to include.

Some of the information you submit through the booking, waitlist, and refill forms - such as your PHN, date of birth, medications, and the reason for a visit - is health information and is treated with the heightened protections the HIA requires. Please share only what a form asks for, and avoid including sensitive clinical details in free-text messages.

At the pharmacy and clinic. When we provide care in person, we collect the information needed to serve you safely, which may include your PHN, government identification, demographic details, medical and medication history, allergies, lab and diagnostic results, prescriptions, immunization records, insurance and billing information, and notes about the care we provide.

Automatically, through the website. When you visit procaredowntown.ca, our servers and analytics tools may record limited technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, and referring links. See Cookies & analytics below.

How and why we use your information

We collect, use, and disclose your information to:

• Provide pharmacy and clinical care, including dispensing medications, filling and refilling prescriptions, delivering clinical services, and coordinating your care;
• Schedule, confirm, change, or cancel appointments, and manage our waitlist and new-patient registration;
• Verify your identity and eligibility, and communicate with you about your requests, appointments, and care;
• Bill and receive payment from Alberta Health, third-party insurers, or you, and administer benefits and claims;
• Maintain accurate health and business records and meet our professional, legal, and regulatory obligations;
• Operate, secure, maintain, and improve this website and our services; and
• Send you service-related messages and, with your consent, reminders or updates, in accordance with CASL.

Consent

We collect, use, and disclose your information with your consent, except where the law authorizes or requires us to act without it. Your consent may be express (for example, when you submit a form or sign a consent document) or implied (for example, when you present a prescription to be filled, your consent to process it is reasonably implied). Where we send commercial electronic messages, we rely on consent as required by CASL.

You may withdraw or change your consent at any time, subject to legal or professional limits and reasonable notice, by contacting our Privacy Officer using the details below. Every commercial electronic message we send also includes a way to unsubscribe. Withdrawing consent may affect our ability to provide certain services or continue your care.

How we disclose and share information

We share your information only as needed to provide care, run our practice, and comply with the law. We may disclose it to:

• Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS), including through provincial systems such as Netcare, for eligibility, billing, and continuity of care as permitted or required under the HIA;
• Other custodians and health providers involved in your care - such as your family physician, specialists, laboratories, diagnostic imaging, hospitals, and other pharmacies - to coordinate and deliver safe care;
• Service providers and processors who perform functions on our behalf (for example, our website host, appointment and email delivery providers, and IT support), under agreements that require them to protect your information and use it only for the services they provide to us;
• Insurers and payors you have authorized, to administer and adjudicate claims; and
• Others where required or permitted by law - for example, to comply with a court order, subpoena, or regulatory or public-health obligation, or to protect the health and safety of you or others.

We do not sell your personal or health information, and we do not disclose it for third-party advertising. Some of our service providers may store or process information outside Alberta; where they do, we take reasonable steps to ensure it remains protected to a comparable standard.

How long we keep your information & secure destruction

We keep information only as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to meet our legal, professional, and record-keeping obligations, after which we securely destroy it or render it non-identifying.

For general personal information collected through this website (such as booking, waitlist, and refill requests), we follow PIPA, which does not set a fixed period but requires us to retain personal information only as long as it is reasonably needed for legal or business purposes.

Your health and clinical recordsare retained in accordance with the Health Information Act and the standards of the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) and the Alberta College of Pharmacy (ACP) - generally a minimum of 10 years from the date of your last visit (and, for patients who were minors, until 2 years after they turn 18, or 10 years, whichever is longer). When records reach the end of their retention period, they are destroyed securely - for example, by cross-cut shredding of paper and secure erasure of electronic media.

How we safeguard your information

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information we hold. Information submitted through this website is transmitted over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. Our safeguards include restricting access to those who need it to do their jobs, staff confidentiality obligations and training, access controls and authentication, secure storage and disposal, and monitoring of our systems. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so please do not include sensitive health information in general website messages - for anything urgent or confidential, call us at (825) 401-4905.

Your rights: access & correction

You have the right to ask what personal and health information we hold about you, to request access to it, and to request a correction if you believe it is inaccurate or incomplete. Under the HIA you may request access to and correction of your own health information, and under PIPA you may request access to and correction of your other personal information.

To make a request, contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We may need to verify your identity, and in limited circumstances the law may allow or require us to withhold certain information. We will respond within the timelines the applicable legislation requires.

Third-party links

This website may contain links to third-party sites and services (for example, maps, provincial health resources, or partner organizations). We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party site you visit.

Children & minors

Our website is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children. We provide care to patients of all ages, and where we collect a minor's information we do so through a parent or guardian as appropriate, or directly from a mature minor in accordance with Alberta law and our professional obligations. We do not knowingly collect information from children through the website without appropriate consent.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date above and post the current version on this page. Material changes will be highlighted where appropriate. Your continued use of the website after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact us & our Privacy Officer

If you have questions, requests, or concerns about this policy or about how we handle your information, please contact our Privacy Officer:

• ProCare Pharmacy & Medical Clinic
• 10663 113 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5H 3H7, Canada
• Phone: (825) 401-4905
• Email: Downtownprocarepharmacy@gmail.com

We will do our best to address your concern. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of Alberta (oipc.ab.ca), which oversees the HIA and PIPA. Where PIPEDA applies, you may also contact the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) (priv.gc.ca).