Last updated: March 2024

This Privacy Statement explains the information practices that Barrie Sleep Disorders Clinic, York County Sleep Disorders Centre, and Sleep Diagnostics Centre, all Linde Companies, (“Ontario Sleep Labs”) (“we,” or “us,”) have adopted to protect the personal information (which in the context of this Privacy Statement also includes personal health information) we collect, use, disclose, and store in the course of doing business and your rights and choices with respect to this personal health information.  “You” and “Your” means the individual whose personal health information is collected by or for Ontario Sleep Labs.  The Ontario Sleep Labs specialize in the detection, diagnosis, and management of the diagnosis of sleep disorders, and in doing so, we collect personal information from or about you, as described in this privacy statement.

This statement applies to personal information we collect or receive about any individual from any source through our website and other online platforms (the “Sites”), when you participate in a sleep study, visit our sleep lab, purchase a product or service, or otherwise interact with us.

Our privacy practices comply with the ‘Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA)’ in the province of Ontario, as well as other privacy laws to which we are required to adhere directly, through accreditation standards or under contracts or agreements.

1. Personal Information We Collect About You

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual, as defined under Canadian federal and provincial privacy laws applicable to our operations in Ontario.

Personal health information is defined under Ontario health sector privacy legislation as identifying information about an individual that is related to the physical or mental health of the individual, including: medical history of an individual and their family, healthcare that has been provided to the individual, care plans, payments and eligibility for healthcare services, provincial healthcare or health card numbers, information derived from testing, examination, or donation of an individual’s body parts or substances, and any information that identifies an individual’s substitute decision maker or healthcare provider.

The types of personal information and personal health information (herein referred to collectively as ‘personal information’) we collect about you depend on your interactions with us and are described in more detail below.

PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE DIRECTLY TO US

We collect personal information from you when providing services, including diagnostic testing, when you use our services or purchase a product, when you complete a patient satisfaction survey via our website, and when you otherwise interact with us, as described herein.

Contact Information such as your address, telephone number and e-mail address is collected from you during the intake process for account creation, to identify you in our system, to communicate with you about appointments, to provide services, for billing purposes, and to contact you in the event of a product recall or to provide other safety notifications or information regarding the equipment, supplies and accessories that you purchase from us. We may also collect your contact information when you request additional information about products or services and interact with our Customer Service team, either in person or through our website.

Financial/payment information such as credit card and/or banking information to charge you for the products and services we provide and process payments and insurance provider information to confirm details required for reimbursement coverage.

Information related to your purchase, use, or rental of products and services such as products and services requested and provided; order details; billing, shipping, or delivery information; and information about your return or exchange of any products or services with us.

Audio and video recordings – If you provide your personal information over the phone, the call might be recorded or monitored for quality improvement and training purposes.  We collect video surveillance footage in certain locations such as in our retail stores for the safety and security of individuals.  As a client or visitor to a retail store, your image, which may identify you, may be captured on video.

Demographic information and personal characteristics such as name, age, gender, height, weight and other pertinent lifestyle information, as necessary for providing services.

Personal Health Information – If you purchase, rent, or trial equipment, or undergo a Sleep Study, we collect the personal health information from you for service initiation, care planning, to support the provision of health care and to manage the care relationship with you.

To access our services, we require a completed requisition form or prescription signed by your family doctor, dentist, or other medical specialist. Either as provided on the requisition form or prescription, or at the time of your appointment, we will collect your:

  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Clinical data (i.e., heart rate and other vital signs)
  • Symptoms
  • Diagnoses
  • Lifestyle information
  • Diagnostic test results
  • Name of your health care provider(s),
  • Prescription for therapy,
  • Name of your substitute decision maker(s), and
  • Related personal information and personal health information.

When you participate in sleep laboratory testing, we collect various clinical and diagnostic information which includes information about your sleep and sleep patterns, and physiological events during sleep (such as restlessness or sleep walking/talking) to diagnose a condition, and/or to recommend the appropriate treatment.  With your advance consent for video recording, a health professional will monitor you from a control room. A camera will record you during the test to ensure your safety, and to assist the physician with interpreting the results of your full sleep test. Video recordings will not be kept without your written consent.

The above information will be securely stored and maintained in an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) which provides an ongoing record of your care. Depending on the products and services being purchased/rented/trialed, ongoing additions and updates to your personal information and your personal health information may be obtained from you and documented by our clinicians.

If you participate in sleep therapy (CPAP/BiLevel PAP therapy), in addition to the personal health information collected from you directly, compliance tracking and monitoring information from your PAP device (to ensure therapy is effective, your device is functioning properly, and to provide advice/adjustments when needed) may be uploaded to an associated IT system at set intervals (daily, weekly, etc.) where it can be accessed by Medigas staff who use the information  to provide you with care.  Note that you do not need to allow your PAP device to be set for automatic downloads. Your device will function normally, and in accordance with your prescription for PAP therapy; automatic or manual downloads of compliance data are not required to receive care and services. You may also choose to download this information direction in the applicable App, subject to an agreement between you and the manufacturer.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM OTHER SOURCES
To provide services to you, we may collect personal information, including personal health information to about you from other sources with your advance consent, or as otherwise permitted by law. This includes collection of personal information from:

  • a referring facility, physician, or other health care professional(s) involved in your care (demographics, diagnoses, health history, treatment information, test results, symptoms, details about your equipment and care, etc.),
  • other third parties you allow to share information with us (health history, treatment information, test results, symptoms, details about your equipment and care, etc.).

2. How We Use Your Personal Information

We generally use your personal information, including personal health information, for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we have obtained your consent to use it for another purpose or when we are permitted by law to use it for another purpose.

We use your personal information, with your consent, for the purposes described below:

  • to provide you with healthcare, monitor your health, or assist in provision of healthcare to you,
  • for service initiation, care planning and provision,
  • for customer account creation and management,
  • to take or verify instructions from you and to confirm your identity if you contact us by phone,
  • to determine coverage under health insurance plans,
  • to submit claims and receive payment for products and services that we have provided to you (including for billing purposes to third party payors and government health and funding agencies),
  • to respond to your requests and any other communications from you and to provide customer service,
  • to conduct product recalls or corrective actions relating to the products and services that have been provided to you,
  • to send you marketing communications about products, services, offers, and promotions by the Ontario Sleep Labs, and to provide you with news and information that we believe may be of interest to you, in accordance with your marketing preferences, with your express consent. You can ask to be removed from our marketing lists at any time.

We may use personal information, including personal health information without consent for:

  • For planning or delivering programs or services that we provide or that we fund in whole or in part, allocating resources to any of them, evaluating or monitoring any of them or detecting, monitoring or preventing fraud or any unauthorized receipt of services or benefits related to any of them;
  • For the purpose for which the information was collected or created and for all the functions reasonably necessary for carrying out that purpose, unless the information was collected with consent or if you have expressly instructed otherwise. These purposes may include but not be limited to:
    • providing information technology support, including troubleshooting to identify, and repair errors that impair existing or intended functionality of our services,
    • establishing a record of the information you provide over the phone to maintain quality service levels and help with staff training,
  • For the purpose of risk management, error management or for the purpose of activities to improve or maintain the quality of care or to improve or maintain the quality of care of our programs or services,
  • Complying with legal requirements,
  • Reasonable other purposes as permitted by applicable law.

3. Disclosing Your Personal Information

Depending on the product or service, we disclose your personal information for the purposes we collected it, for another purpose to which you have consented, or for a purpose which is permitted or required by law.

We may disclose your personal health information to:

  • any person or organization to whom you provide consent, including to another custodian for the provision of health care,
  • an emergency contact in connection with the provision of healthcare products and services to you, where it is necessary in the event of an emergency,
  • the prescribing physician, and other health care providers (e.g. family physician, respirologist), as requested by you if you have consented to this disclosure at the time services are initiated. This will include compliance reports, sleep studies and other patient data and reports,
  • to a homecare company of your choice through an appropriate referral form for the purposes of procuring a CPAP unit, with your consent,
  • to determine eligibility to receive health care or related goods, services or benefits;
  • to a person conducting and audit or reviewing an application for accreditation or reviewing an accreditation,
  • for the purpose of activities to improve or maintain the quality of care provided by the receiving custodian,
  • to the Chief Medical Officer of Health for a purpose of the Health Protection and Promotion Act,
  • for proceedings or to comply with a summons, order or similar requirement,
  • to a potential successor in a business acquisition to allow them to assess and evaluate our operations, if they enter an agreement to keep the information confidential and secure and not to retain it longer than the purpose of the assessment,
  • to a person carrying out an inspection, investigation or similar procedure that is authorized by a warrant or by law,
  • if permitted or required by law,
  • to the Minister, another custodian, a local health integration network, or to Ontario Health to determine or provide funding or payment for the provision of care, and
  • other people or organizations who are legally authorized to view, obtain, or collect your personal information

4. Service Providers and Affiliates

To carry out our legitimate business purposes, we communicate your personal information to authorized people, organizations, and service providers carrying out a contract for services for the Ontario Sleep Labs, who need this information to perform their duties and services for us, including affiliated companies.  We do not sell your personal information.

We use the following types of service providers and affiliated companies for carrying out various business purposes, including:

  • Third-party Polysomnographic Technicians and Physicians (Sleep Specialists) for processing and interpreting clinical test results,
  • In connection with the use of CPAP or BiLevel PAP equipment (“PAP Equipment”), personal information or personal health information may be sent to a computer server that is owned by a company that is not the Ontario Sleep Labs, for the purposes of providing healthcare,
  • In connection with diagnostic sleep testing, personal information may be sent to a computer service located in a province outside Ontario and in the AWS Cloud,
  • Delivering products and equipment,
  • Product recalls and communication of services or information,
  • Information management services such as secure paper shredding service providers and records storage,
  • Providing support services, including answering services,
  • Information technology (IT) support and processing,
  • Payment processing, and
  • Supporting the provision of other services.

5. Retention of your personal information

Personal information is retained by the Ontario Sleep Labs for one of the following time periods, whichever is longer:

  • As long as required by law,
  • As long as required by contract, as necessary for the fulfillment of our contract obligations, or
  • As long as needed to for managing the products and services we provide you.

The types of products and services we offer may require us to keep your information for extended periods. Personal information that is no longer required is securely destroyed, deleted, or made anonymous.

6. Consent

With some exceptions, we require your consent to collect, use and disclose your personal information except where otherwise permitted or required by law. Depending on the circumstances and the type of personal information collected, your consent may be expressed orally, in writing or electronically.  Your consent will be implied when, acting reasonably, Linde can conclude that by taking a certain action, you have given your consent. In certain circumstances, we may obtain your consent through your authorized representative, such as your substitute decision maker.

We may collect, use, or disclose personal information about you without your consent for legitimate business purposes, as described in this privacy statement. For example, we do not require additional consent to use your personal information for providing or delivering a product or service you use or apply for. Other exceptions are determined by law and can include legal, medical or security reasons that make receiving your consent impossible or impractical such as fraud prevention and detection, assessing or improving security measures, or when necessary for providing health care and it is not reasonably possible to obtain your consent in a timely manner.

You have a right to withhold or withdraw your consent for us to collect, use or disclose your personal information if there are no legal or contractual requirements that prevent it.  If you choose to withdraw or refuse to give consent, we may not be able to provide or continue to provide certain products services or information to you. You cannot withdraw consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information for the purposes of product recalls, safety notifications or information, or of responses to regulatory or self-regulatory bodies.

If you wish to withdraw your consent at any time, or would like to access your personal information held by Medigas, you may do so by contacting by the process described in Section 10.

7. How We Protect Your Personal Information

Our information security has been developed and continually enhanced to protect your personal information from unauthorized disclosure, access, and use. Physical, organizational, and technological safeguards are in place to protect this information, based on its nature and sensitivity.

While we strive to protect your personal information, we can not ensure the security of the information you transmit. Therefore, we recommend you take every precaution in protecting your personal information when you are on the Internet. For example, use complex passwords and do not reveal your password to anyone.

8. Your Rights and Choices

You have several rights and choices with respect to your personal information held by or for the Ontario Sleep Labs.  These rights and choices may vary, based on the specific privacy legislation that applies to the collection, use, disclosure, and retention of your personal information by the Ontario Sleep Labs. We strive to uphold the highest standards under all privacy laws applicable to the Ontario Sleep Labs, as outlined here. You may contact our Chief Privacy Officer for more information.

Rights of access and correction

You may submit a written request to obtain a copy of your personal information we hold about you.

There may be a fee for such information; you will be notified after your request is evaluated.
Our response to your request will be provided in writing, with certain limited exceptions. In some cases, the Ontario Sleep Labs may not provide access to personal information within our possession or control, including in the following circumstances, as allowed by law:

  • if doing so would reasonably be expected to result in a risk of serious harm to the treatment or recovery of the individual or a risk of serious bodily harm to the individual or another person,
  • a law or court order prohibits the disclosure,
  • the information was collected for a proceeding, inspection or investigation, including where an individual is receiving or attempting to receive a service, benefit or payment to which they are not entitled, and which has not been concluded,
  • disclosure would reveal the identity or a person who provided information in confidence,
  • the personal information is protected by legal privilege, or
  • for another reason, in accordance with legislation applicable to the request.

If we inform you about the existence of or provide you with a copy of your personal information and you believe that it is inaccurate, incomplete, or ambiguous you can request that we correct the information. We will correct any inaccurate personal information upon your written request, allowing us to best meet your needs in the future. However, we may not correction the record of personal health information if we did not create it and we do not have sufficient knowledge, expertise and authority to correct it or if it consists of a professional opinion or observation that a custodian made in good faith about you. If you believe that the collection, disclosure, or retention of your personal information is not authorized by law, you may ask us to rectify the matter.

We will require that you prove your identity before we process your request for access to, or correction of your personal information. A request will also be considered if it is made by a person acting as the representative, heir or successor of the person concerned, liquidator of the estate, beneficiary of life insurance or death benefit, or holder of parental authority. In all cases, this person will have to establish their capacity and identity.

If we are unable to provide you with access to your personal information or if we are unable to correct it, we will advise you in writing of the reason for the refusal unless we are prohibited from doing so by law.

We will respond to your access or correction request within 30 days of the date we receive it, unless we provide you written notice that we will extend the deadline for not more than 30 days.

Please contact the Chief Privacy Officer at the mailing address or email address provided below to make an access or correction request.

9. Complaint Process

Linde’s Chief Privacy Officer is accountable for overseeing the Ontario Sleep Labs’ compliance with Linde’s privacy policies.

You may submit a written request to Linde’s Chief Privacy Officer on any aspect of our personal information governance and procedures, including:

  • Questions about the Ontario Sleep Labs’ privacy policies and practices and/or to obtain additional information;
  • To exercise your rights, as described in this Privacy Statement; or
  • To voice a concern or make a privacy-related complaint. We have established an internal privacy complaint review process. We will investigate all complaints and we endeavor to respond to all privacy-related complaints and address any concerns as quickly and thoroughly as possible. If a complaint is found to be justified, we will take appropriate measures to correct the situation.

10. Contact Us

Privacy complaints and all other privacy-related inquiries should be directed to the Linde Chief Privacy Officer in writing, at:

Linde Canada Inc.
5015 Spectrum Way, Suite 500
Mississauga, ON  L4W 0E4

Attention: Chief Privacy Officer

Or by Email: privacy.officer.canada@linde.com

Or by confidential toll-free telephone, at 1-866-919-7596.

If your privacy concern has not been addressed to your satisfaction, you may file a formal complaint with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario who oversees compliance with the Personal Health Information Protection Act.

11. Updates

We may update this Privacy Statement at any time by posting updated text on this site. We encourage you to review this Privacy Statement from time to time.