covid shots now available
902-453-3511 (T) 902-454-9010 (F)
Book your Flu Shots today
Monday to Friday 8am - 5pm
Book your Flu Shots today
Monday to Friday 8am - 5pm
Dr. Vihvelin is out of the office on Maternity Leave, In her place we welcome Dr. Chowdhury. You can book online from the main page or contact the office.
Richmond Family Practice is not accepting any new patients at this time. Please be sure to submit your name and information to the 811 list.
If there are any questions please forward to: admin@richmondfamilypractice.ca
This Privacy Policy is based on the Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) and fundamental privacy principles. Custodians of personal health information (such as physicians and other regulated health professionals) and their agents are responsible for complying with PHIA.
Principle 1: Accountability We are responsible for the personal health information in our custody or under our control. We have identified a Privacy Contact, who is responsible for the practice’s compliance with PHIA. The key functions of the Privacy Contact include developing and implementing policies and procedures to protect personal health information, training employees and agents about privacy practices, and responding to inquiries, complaints and breaches related to personal health information and privacy.
Principle 2: Identifying Purposes Before we collect personal health information, we advise patients why we are collecting it and the purposes for which it will be used. This information is available to patients through printed handouts and on our website. Our staff is knowledgeable about the purposes for collecting, using and disclosing personal health information and can provide this information to patients who have difficulties reading or accessing the information. We use personal health information for the following purposes: Providing our patients with health care and supporting health care; research approved by a Research Ethics Board; Billing for health care services; improving the quality of our programs and services; training staff.
Principle 3: Consent PHIA provides that personal health information should not be collected, used or disclosed without the knowledgeable implied consent of the individual whose information it is, subject to limited exceptions (e.g., disease reporting required by law, imminent and significant danger to others). Consent may be implied or expressed by the patient verbally or in writing. Knowledgeable implied consent is the form of consent required by PHIA for sharing of personal health information within a patient’s circle of care (i.e., healthcare providers involved in a patient’s episode of care). Implied consent is knowledgeable if it is reasonable to believe that patients know the purpose for the collection, use and disclosure and that they may give or withhold consent. Under PHIA patients have the right to limit or revoke consent for the collection, use and disclosure of their personal health information, subject to limited exceptions. To limit or revoke consent, patients must make this request to their physician. Richmond Family Practice will take reasonable steps to comply with a patient’s request to limit or revoke the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal health information. Where PHIA provides the authority for patients to limit or revoke the collection, use and disclosure of their personal health information. Richmond Family Practice will respond to a patient’s request to the best of our ability. Your physician will discuss any significant consequences that may result as a result of the request. This may include staff being unable to check whether your test results or specialist reports are available, essential information not being available in a timely manner or having to wait until your primary physician is available if another health care provider refuses to provide you with care because of a lack of information. If your physician does not have consent to disclose all your personal health information that is reasonably necessary for the purpose to another health care provider, he or she is required to notify the other healthcare provider of that fact.
Principle 4: Limiting Collection We limit the collection of personal health information to the minimum amount of information necessary to achieve the purposes we identified to our patients. We only collect personal health information through fair and lawful means.
Principle 5: Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention We use and disclose personal health information only for the purposes we have identified to our patients. If there is a need to use or disclose personal health information for a new purpose, we will ask for a new consent from our patients. We will only disclose personal health information to a person outside Nova Scotia if the patient consents, PHIA permits the disclosure, to meet the requirements of another jurisdiction’s prescription monitoring program, for planning and management of the health system or health administration if certain conditions are met, or when the disclosure is needed for providing the patient with health care and the patient has not expressly forbidden the disclosure. We document any disclosures of personal health information that occur without consent, including a description or copy of the information, the name of the person or organization to which it was disclosed, and the date and authority for the disclosure. We retain personal health information in accordance with our retention and destruction schedule and the Guidelines of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia. We securely dispose of personal health information, in keeping with our retention and destruction schedule.
Principle 6: Accuracy We keep patients’ personal health information as accurate, up-to-date and complete as is necessary to meet the purposes we have identified to our patients.
Principle 7: Safeguards We have put reasonable safeguards in place to protect the personal health information of our patients against theft or loss of the information, and unauthorized access to or use, disclosure, copying or modification of the information. The safeguards include a combination of policies, practices, and technologies to protect personal health information, regardless of the form in which it is stored (e.g., paper or electronic).Our collection of information is directly input into our Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system. This system has fail safes in place to allow keeping record of any breaches of the system or electronic health information.
Principle 8: Openness We inform our patients about the personal health information we collect, the purposes for which it is used or disclosed, and to whom, and the process for a patient to access their own information. We do this through available printed Handouts and information posted on our Website www.richmondfamilypractice.ca
Principle 9: Individual Access Patients have the right to access their own personal health information held by our practice, subject to certain exceptions in PHIA. Patients can access their records to make sure the information is accurate or complete and can request a correction. PHIA provides a fee schedule that we use to charge for this access. Patients can also request a record of user activity to find out who has accessed their information held in our EMR system. Principle 10: Challenging Compliance Patients have the right to challenge whether we have met the requirements of our information policies and PHIA. We have a complaints policy that sets out the steps to do this. If patients are not satisfied with the response from our practice, they can also make a complaint to the Review Officer or the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia. For more details, please see our complaint policy.
Profanity of any kind, aggressive posturing, sexual comments of any kind or threatening behavior will not be tolerated whether it is presented on the phone or in the clinic. Failure to abide by this policy could result in the offender being dismissed as a patient from the clinic and/or being reported to the authorities. Our staff and physicians have the right to work in a safe environment and we take this policy very seriously.
Cancellation of previously booked appointments must be done prior to 24 hours notice, failure to do so could result in a $50 missed appointment charge. A cancellation can be made through Medeo if the appontment was booked online, by clicking on the cancel appointment button above, sending an email to admin@richmondfamilypractice.ca or by calling the office.
All fees payable to the clinic, doctors notes, drivers medicals, disability claims etc., must be made prior to the supply of such provisions and can be done so either by cash or by sending an E-transfer to admin@richmondfamilypractice.ca
