Effective January 1, 2004, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act came into effect. The Act recognizes that Canadians have a right to privacy with respect to their personal information. Privacy of your personal information is important to us, and we are committed to collecting, using and disclosing your personal information in a responsible manner. This document describes our privacy policy.

What is Personal Information:
Personal information is information about an individual. It includes information that relates to his/her personal characteristics (i.e., gender, age, income, home address, home phone number, ethnic background, family status), his/her health (i.e., health history, health conditions, health services received), or his/her activities or views (i.e., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual), and his/her animal’s health. Business information, when used for business contact purposes (i.e., address, phone number, etc.), is not considered personal information and therefore is not protected by privacy legislation.

Collection and use
Personal information collected from you by the PDVS will be for the following purposes:
a) Verify Identity
b) to provide high quality veterinary services for pets, and ensure that you are
c) fully aware of our actions
d) to advise you of your pet’s health care needs
e) to determine and recommend appropriate treatment or referral
f) to process payment and pursue collection of accounts receivable for services or
g) products received from our hospital
h) to communicate with others (i.e., other pet health care providers, lawyers, third party
insurers, etc.) about your pet’s health status
i) To meet our veterinary medical association’s regulatory requirements

Consent
a) We will obtain client consent to collect, use or disclose personal information (except where, as noted below, we are authorized to do so without consent).
b) Consent can be provided (orally, in writing, electronically or through an authorized representative) or it can be implied where the purpose for collecting using or disclosing the personal information would be considered obvious and the client voluntarily provides personal information for that purpose.
c) Consent may also be implied where a client is given notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of his or her personal information being used for mail-outs and the client does not opt-out.
d) Subject to certain exceptions (e.g., the personal information is necessary to provide the service or product, or the withdrawal of consent would frustrate the performance of a legal obligation) clients can withhold or withdraw their consent for PVDS to use their personal information in certain ways. A client’s decision to withhold or withdraw their consent to certain uses of personal information may restrict our ability to provide a particular service or product. If so, we will explain the situation to assist the client in making the decision.
e) We may collect, use or disclose personal information without the client’s knowledge or consent in the following limited circumstances:
a. When the use of personal information is permitted or required by law
b. When the personal information is available from a public source (i.e., at telephone directory)
c. When we require legal advice from a lawyer or regulatory association
d. For the purpose of collecting a debt
e. To protect ourselves from fraud
Disclosure
In the course of providing services to you, your personal information may be disclosed to:
a) The clinic (Blue Cross Animal Hospital) in which PVDS operates
b) other veterinary hospitals, laboratories and consulting specialists
c) governmental authorities (i.e., Agriculture Canada, CCRA, Privacy Commissioner, etc.)
d) our hospital’s lawyers, accountants, and consultants contracted to provide advice or counsel
e) regarding the administration or management of the hospital
f) regulatory authorities, where such information may assist in the investigation of a
g) complaint or a review of standards of care
h) insurers or other third-party payers you have identified
i) on termination of sale of the hospital to a purchasing veterinarian or file storage
j) facility that agrees to serve as trustee of your personal information, and to only access
this information for the purpose of confirming their custody of your file

Disclosure (cont’d)
The vaccination status, only, of a pet(s) will be released to boarding kennels and groomers with no other written authorization than that previously signed. However, a “Consent for Release of Information” form must be signed by the client or authorized guardian(s) prior to the release of information to pet care providers for any other reason. Authorized guardian(s) must be specified by the client, in advance, and their name(s) recorded in our files. In addition, authorized guardians will be allowed to make medical decisions regarding the pet’s care at the PDVS.

Protecting personal information
We understand the importance of protecting information so we are taking the following steps:
a) paper information is under supervision
b) electronic hardware is under supervision
c) paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes, by
reputable companies
d) staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to
fulfill their duties, and in accordance with our privacy policy
e) the hospital building is monitored by a security company after hours

Access and destruction of personal information
You have the right to access your personal information at any reasonable time (i.e., during regular office hours) and you have the right to request corrections to your personal information. This applies to factual information and not professional opinions we may have recorded. Corrections are recorded on your client file (paper and computer). We are required to keep our client’ files for five years after the last visit after which time they will be destroyed.

Reasonable safeguards will be taken whenever paper and electronic records are destroyed or deleted. Every reasonable effort will be made to ensure that no record remains after destruction.

Website Log
When you use our website, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.
Cookies enable us to customize your browsing experience and speed up website load times. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies at any time. If you decline cookies, you do not have access to the benefits of a custom web browsing experience.

Social Media Policy
We are not responsible for any information collected by social networks on which we maintain a social media presence. These include, but are not limited to, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Each social network has its own privacy policy and it should be read before creating an account on the network. We are not responsible for any marketing or retargeting performed by a social network after you have visited our pages.

Changes to This Policy
Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. While we expect most such changes will be minor, we will post any Policy changes on this page.

Any questions?
Should you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, please contact us at:
9103 – 111 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
T5B 0C3
Phone: (780) 964-4747 Email: team@pvds.ca
More general inquiries should be directed to:
The Alberta Government Privacy Help Desk – privacyhelpdesk@gov.ab.ca