PRIVACY POLICY FOR ACUWELL CLINIC
AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine recognises that your privacy is important and is committed to respecting your privacy. We will apply appropriate protection and management of any information you share with us. The information you provide will be held and used in accordance with European data protection law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (2016/679).
AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine may change this Policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check the Privacy Policy on our website www.acuwell.ie) from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes made.
Data Controller
The Data Controller is Maria Maher. She may be contacted at info@acuwell.ie.
Data Processed
The information collected by AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine includes name, date of birth, contact number, address, email address, medical history and, possibly, copies of medical records from other medical practitioners or other given to AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine by the patient themselves.
This data is collected by means of a telephone call, an email, a completed Appointment Request, completed questionnaires, and/or from the patient before or during an appointment.
This data is processed in order to book an appointment, provide acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine treatments, for billing purposes or for marketing purposes.
On occasion, AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine may use patient information to conduct clinical studies to help us improve upon services provided. If information is used for this purpose the patient will be anonymous, so no identifying details will be disclosed.
The information received and collected about a patient is strictly private and confidential. It is used and viewed only by the healthcare professionals employed by AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine, unless, in the best interest of the patient, a practitioner determines that there is a need to communicate with another practitioner or healthcare professional outside of AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine. This would happen with the patient’s prior knowledge and would be for one of two reasons: for the purposes of treatment by a locum or for provision of Chinese Herbal Medicine by a qualified practitioner.
AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine will not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party unless required by law. Under absolutely no circumstances would this communication happen without the signed consent of the patient.
The patient information will be stored in digital and/or hard copy format on AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine premises.
All patient data will be held for 7 years after the date of the last visit.
Security
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect electronically and on paper. These procedures include the use of a locked filing cabinet for secure storage of paper-based data and passwords for electronic devices. The only person who has access to patient data is the Data Controller, Maria Maher.
Controlling your personal information
You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:
• If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to the Data Controller: Maria Maher, AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine, 126 Ranelagh Village, Dublin 6 or emailing us at info@acuwell.ie.
• You may request details of personal information which we hold about you. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine, 126 Ranelagh Village, Dublin 6.
• If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine at the above address or email info@acuwell.ie.
We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
• You can object to the use of your data at any time by writing to AcuWell – Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine at the above address.
Your Data protection on our Website.
Who is the Data Controller
Maria Maher is the Data Controller which means that she decides how your personal data in terms of her Acupuncture practice is processed and for what purposes.
What is Personal Data?
How is your personal Data processed?
- keep personal data up to date
- store and destroy it securely
- avoid collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data
- protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure
- ensure that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.
How is your personal Data collected?
The information collected varies from the following:
Your Name
E-mail address
Phone number
Postal address
IP address
Payment information via a third party (PayPal)
Visitor data to our website is collected anonymously (relates to cookies that might be used)
What do I use your information for?
- To personalise your experience – your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs.
- To improve our website – we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you.
- To validate you are a real person.
- To improve our customer service – your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs.
- To process financial transactions.
- To notify you of services / products you may be interested in.
- Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or our services to you. The email address you provide for order processing will be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order and our services.
How is your personal Data protected?
- A secure and resilient hosting platform is used.
- All supplied sensitive or credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into a Payment Gateway Providers Database which is only accessible by those authorised with special access rights to such systems, and who are required to keep the information confidential.
For how long is your Personal Data retained?
Links to other Websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
What are your rights?
- The right to request a copy of your personal data which the we hold about you.
- The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date.
- The right to request that your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for us to retain such data.
- The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request that a restriction is placed on further processing.
- The right to object to the processing of personal data, e.g. marketing, profiling etc.
- The right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commisioner
If you wish to discuss or exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Controller, Maria Maher, who will be pleased to assist you.
Your consent
Exceptions to this are when such information is necessary, for example, as part of a sales transactions for gift vouchers or required by Irish law.
