Dr. Barnela's
Privacy Policy
Introduction
What is Personal Data?
What Data Do We Collect?
Our website collects both personal and non-personal data to deliver services and enhance overall user experience. The categories comprise:
- Voluntarily Disclosed Information: Submitted directly by users through online forms, email interactions, teleconsultations etc. It includes personal identifiers, demographics, medical history and conditions, other health data, insurance details and communication preferences users choose to provide.
- Website Activity Data: Details on features usage and interactions automatically observed and logged like pages visited, buttons clicked, documents viewed, appointment bookings, prescription refills etc. that do not specifically identify users.
- Technical Usage Information: Data on devices and technology accessing services like IP addresses, browsers used, operating systems, internet service providers etc.
Under What Circumstances Do We Collect Data?
Data collection can occur across website activities such as (but not limited to):
- Booking appointments online
- Signing up for mailing lists
- Participating in remote video consultations
- Completing contact/enquiry submissions
- Downloading educational materials
- Commenting on posts
- Making payments
- Other transactions
Data is also recorded on our website analytics tools to analyze traffic, views, and user interactions. This allows improving services delivered.
For What Purposes Do You Use My Information?
The primary goal of any data collection is ensuring excellent patient care and smooth administrative operations. Specific usages comprise:
Patient Care Delivery:
Voluntarily provided personal/medical information helps prepare for and conduct consultations, follow-ups, developing diagnoses and treatment plans, determining medication needs, as well as carrying out required administrative tasks pre and post visits. Data enables delivering timely, proactive and coordinated care aligned to a patient’s unique conditions and needs.
Practice Administration:
Personal data helps verify insurance eligibility benefits for users to coordinate financial clearances for services rendered. It also enables collecting payments, generating billing statements, sending receipts and reminders through patients’ preferred mediums where applicable.
Legal/Regulatory Compliance:
Relevant personal data must be recorded and stored for defined periods to comply with regulations governing healthcare documentation, reporting requirements and audits. It also comprises incident reporting, performance reviews, accreditation surveys, data validations etc. needed to operate legally.
Communication Initiatives:
Contact information provided voluntarily enables communicating appointment reminders, follow-ups, distribute educational materials, important notifications, newsletters etc. directly through patients’ indicated preferred medium like email, phone, text messages etc. These communications keep users informed and engaged.
Analytics and Website Improvement:
Anonymous website activity information and statistics data enables understanding effectiveness from a broad perspective to identify areas that can be enhanced or developed further through our patient portal. Resultant improvements positively impact overall user experience.
Service Innovation:
Emerging usage patterns, preferences and queries analyzed at an aggregate level allow the practice to develop new solutions aligned with patient needs. Data inspires ways to elevate care standards.
Any other data usage scenarios will be clearly communicated, displayed and consented to by the data subject prior to leveraging information.
What Categories of Data Do You Collect?
The different categories collected can comprise:
- Personal identifiers like name, date of birth, location, contacts, IDs assigned etc.
- Specific health condition data that is voluntarily disclosed
- Insurance/financial coverage and related billing data
- Other demographic details like age, gender, ethnicity etc.
- Communication preferences like preferred language, medium like call/text/email etc.
- Interactions with educational content like articles, tip sheets etc.
- Website analytics covering usage statistics, traffic sources, interactions across patient portal or pages etc. that are not personally identifiable
What About Cookies and Tracking Technologies?
Our website leverages first-party cookies required for proper functioning, maintaining user sessions securely to deliver consistent personalized experiences. They remember previous steps so users need not re-enter details frequently. No third-party ad cookies are placed by us. Our website analytics rely on standard web logs and page tags to garner aggregated visitor statistics essential for assessing user experiences in bulk. All tracking is 100% anonymous without collecting or storing personal identifiers. Users can control cookies and tracking tools as aligned to their browser or device privacy settings without affecting core site experience.
Data Access and Sharing
We follow strict data protection protocols aligned to applicable healthcare regulations and aim to ensure use on a “need-to-know” basis focused solely on patient care delivery or legally mandated documentation. Very selective technical teams may access certain statistics covering use patterns in aggregate to improve functionality from a broad administrative perspective. But they cannot identify individual user behavior. We do not and will not sell personal information to any third party advertisers/marketers.
In the normal course of care delivery and operations or to fulfill legal requirements, some essential personal data may be shared or disclosure is necessary to designated professionals within-practice, insurers, governning bodies etc. This could include appointment details, prescriptions, diagnoses etc. needing documentation in health records or claims submissions. All sharing follows appropriate consent and privacy protocols compliant with relevant data protection regulations. Beyond these use cases, we do not share personal information with any other third parties except when legally mandated or to avert threats.
Regarding your rights, applicable regulations provide users controls over personal information maintained by us. This allows requesting details on specific data stored, rectifying inaccuracies, restricting processing in certain circumstances, the ability to withdraw consent at any time as applicable etc. Most user rights requests can be initiated through available website self-service tools for convenience. For any queries, you can contact our Data Protection Officer. All requests will be honored within stipulated regulatory timeframes.
Data Retention Practices
We understand the right of users to minimize data held. Relevant records are stored for minimal yet appropriate durations needed to fulfill the original processing purposes, subject to healthcare regulatory compliance requirements of data retention for defined timeframes to meet documentation standards. Following expiration of mandatory retention periods, personal data shall be safely removed as reasonably practical upon request or automatically from active systems. Non-personal website activity logs and analytics are stored for designated periods to ascertain usage patterns in aggregate before being deleted. Please contact our Data Protection Officer to discuss our data retention practices if needed.
Security Practices
Maintaining safety of data our utmost priority, upheld through technical, administrative and physical safeguards per healthcare regulations for protected health information. We adopt security best practices in tools used, restrict access only on a need-to-know basis for limited staff, conduct periodic sensitization training and due risk assessments etc. However, while we aim to protect your Personal Data to the best of our abilities, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed completely secure. Hence while adequate protocols are adopted internally, we encourage users also undertake reasonable security best practices for online interactions. Please reach out to us in case of concerns.
Policy Updates
As regulations and best practices evolve, changes in our privacy policy may be needed. We reserve the right to amend terms at any time going forward and will keep updated versions posted here. Existing users will need to re-submit their consent only if significant shifts in policy occur through re-acceptance notices displayed before subsequent usage. Else continued engagement constitutes agreement. We commit to keep users notified directly of any pivotal changes enacted.
Data Protection Queries
For any concerns, requests or queries regarding this Privacy Policy and related data protection practices at our organization, please contact our appointed Data Protection Officer below with relevant specifics so suitable actions can be initiated to resolve issues positively.
Email: info@drbarnela.com Phone: +91 7820891048
We hope the above information reassures you of our commitment to handle any Personal Data submitted in a lawful and ethical manner focused on delivering effective healthcare while respecting user rights. Please go through these guidelines clearly before engaging further so you make an informed decision. Reach out to us for any clarification needed and we will be glad to discuss further.