Who we are – Modern OT

Modern OT is owned and operated by Fiona Smith Bradley and Shannon McGrath, both occupational therapists registered with the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario. The company is registered under the corporate name McGrath Smith Bradley Occupational Therapy Professional Corporation. Modern OT has established a team of experienced occupational therapists working both as employees and as consultants providing services to the clients of Modern OT.

Our Privacy Policy

Privacy of personal information is very important to Modern OT. We are committed to collecting, using, and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the goods and services we provide. We will make every effort to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. All clinicians and employees who come in contact with your personal information are aware of the sensitive nature of the information that you have disclosed to us. This document describes our privacy policies.

Primary purposes for collecting your personal information

For our clients and customers, our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to provide our clients with the highest quality rehabilitation services to maximize recovery both medically and vocationally. Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include: name, home contact information, insurance benefit coverage, gender, age, language, education or training, occupation/profession, marital status, income, medical history, health measurements, samples or examination results, health conditions, assessment results and diagnoses, health services provided to or received by the person, health information collected in the course of providing services, prognosis or other opinions formed during assessment and treatment, compliance with assessment and treatment, reasons for discharge and discharge condition and recommendations, opinions expressed by the person, work hours, intentions (e.g., to utilize services, to change jobs) and letters written to the organization by the person.

We do not disclose personal information to the General Public.

In order to collect information from our clients, we will obtain written consent whenever possible.

We will inform our clients of the purpose(s) for which information is collected and used, and to whom personal information may be disclosed at the time of obtaining consent for collection.

All consultants and employees are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties in accordance with our privacy policy.
External consultations and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us regarding any information they may receive from us.

Secondary purposes for collecting your personal information

We also collect use and disclose information for purposes related secondarily to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our secondary purposes are:

• To invoice for goods or services or to collect unpaid accounts.
• To answer client questions about treatment after the conclusion of services.

Occupational Therapists are regulated by the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario (COTO). COTO may inspect our records and interview our therapists as part of their regulatory activities in the public interest. In addition, as professionals, we will report serious misconduct, incompetence or incapacity of other practitioners whether they belong to other organization or our own. Also our organization believes that it should report information suggesting serious illegal behaviour to the authorities. External regulators have their own strict privacy obligations. Sometimes their reports include personal information about our clients, or other individuals, to support their concerns (e.g., improper services).

Also like all organizations, various government agencies (e.g., Canada Customs and Revenue Agency Information and Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commission) have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as a part of their mandates. In these circumstances we may consult with professionals e.g. lawyers, accountants who will investigate the matter and report back to us.

Our regulatory colleges of Ontario require us to retain our client records for a minimum of ten years after the last contact.

You can see your information

With some exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. Often all you have to do is ask. We can help you identify what records we might have about you. We will also try to help you to understand any information you do not understand (short forms, technical language, etc.). We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests, where extensive photocopying is required, or other fees related to the retrieval of personal information are incurred.

We may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days if possible and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access.

If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still include in our file a brief statement from you on the matter and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

Do you have a concern?

Our Information Officer, Fiona Smith Bradley, can be reached at 1-613-792-3461 or fiona@modernOT.ca to address any concerns you might have.
If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Information Officer at fiona@modernOT.ca. She will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.
For more general inquiries, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner can be reached at:
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau, Quebec  K1A 1H3
Phone: 819-994-5444
Toll-Free: 1-800-282-1376
Fax: 613-947-6850
TTY: 819-994-6591
www.privcom.gc.ca

As a regulated health care professional, and as co-owner of the corporation, Fiona Smith Bradley, Registered Occupational Therapist, is the “health information custodian” at Modern OT. I am registered with the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario (COTO). If you have a concern about the professionalism or competence of our services or our mental or physical capacity, I would ask you to discuss your concerns with me. However, if I cannot satisfy your concerns, you are entitled to complain to my regulatory body:

College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario
20 Bay Street, Suite 900
Toronto, ON M5J 2N8
Phone: 1-800-890-65701-800-890-6570
www.coto.org