Privacy Policy
Personal contact information will be deleted at a clients request providing all fees for services at this clinic have been paid in full
The following information is collected : Patient name, address, date of birth, email address, phone numbers, GP details, past medical history, family medical history if needed and case history for treatment carried out at this clinic. All information is given by the patient or their carer, parent or legal guardian.
Information collected is for the purpose of making informed clinical decisions.
Data is collected on the phone by reception staff or practitioners to book appointments and take contact details. Medical information is collected by Osteopaths during the appointment and recorded on a patient case history record card.Patient contact details are stored on case history record cards and a spreadsheet on the clinic database. Appointments are recorded in a paper diary.
Osteopath Lee Thompson stores records electronically ‘in the cloud’ using a specialist medical records service. The provider has given Lee their assurance that they are fully compliant with data protection regulations.Access to this electronic data is password protected and the passwords are changed regularly. Client treatment notes are then printed off and added to the patients paper record held by this clinic. A request to delete this electronic information can be made after eight years for adults. Children’s records are kept until they have reached the age of 25.
Notes are archived 3 years after a clients last visit. They are held in a secure cabinet in a lockable room . Adults records are shredded 8 years after their last visit .
Patient data is also used for appointment reminder text messages, a newsletter and a email in their birthday month offering discounts which patients opt in to with a tick box on their first visit. We check patients still want to receive communications on a regular basis.Parents must give consent for communication with children under 16.
Information is only shared with other persons with patients permission. This would usually be other health professionals.
Data would extremely rarely be shared without consent if there was a legal order or in cases of serious safety risk. We do not pass data to other companies for marketing purposes.
We endeavour to check with Osteopath clients when they attend for appointments if the data we hold for them is still accurate.
Access to paper records is restricted to Osteopaths and admin staff who have signed a confidentiality agreement.All electronic data is password protected . Only reception staff and the clinic owner knows these passwords.Data breaches will be investigated and reported to the Information Commisioners Office by the appointed person. Patients will be informed if we believe a data breach has occurred.
All staff know that subject access requests must be responded to within a month and no charge can be made.Data is only released on receipt of a signed request form from patients or in exceptional circumstances. Any data sharing is detailed in the patient record.
A number of self employed therapists work from this Clinic providing various therapies and their clients are asked to contact them directly to check the therapists own privacy policy as the Clinic is only responsible for the Osteopathic records held here.