Privacy policy.

Last updated: October 22, 2026

Juvenescence Wellness is a Nurse Practitioner–led clinic in Lake Cowichan, British Columbia. Looking after your personal information — particularly your health information — is part of looking after you. This page explains what we collect, why, who can see it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it.

If anything here is unclear, please ask. We would rather answer a question than have you wonder.

Which law applies

Juvenescence Wellness is a private organization, not a public body. Our handling of personal information is governed by British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), together with the record-keeping and confidentiality obligations that apply to Nurse Practitioners registered with the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM).

The federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) may also apply to information that crosses provincial or national borders.

What we collect

We collect only what we need to provide safe clinical care and to run the clinic.

If you are a patient

• Identifying information — name, date of birth, address, phone number, email
• Personal Health Number and, where relevant, extended health benefit details
• Medical history, current medications, allergies, and relevant family history
• Laboratory and bloodwork results ordered through the clinic
• Consultation notes, treatment records, consent forms, and treatment plans
• Clinical photographs, where these form part of your record — taken only with your specific consent, which you may decline without it affecting your care
• Payment information processed at the time of your appointment

If you use this website

• Anything you type into the contact form — your name, email, phone number, the service you are asking about, and your message
• Your email address, if you tick the box asking for clinic updates

Please do not send medical information through the website contact form or by email. Neither is a secure channel, and form submissions are handled by our website provider rather than by our clinical system. If your question is clinical, call the clinic and we will talk it through properly.

Why we collect it

• To assess, plan, and deliver your care safely
• To prescribe and monitor treatment, and to order and interpret laboratory work
• To maintain the clinical record that professional practice requires
• To book, confirm, and remind you about appointments
• To process payment and issue receipts
• To answer enquiries you send us
• To send clinic updates, but only if you have specifically asked for them

We do not sell your personal information. We do not rent, trade, or share it for anyone else’s marketing.

Consent

We collect, use, and disclose your personal information with your consent, except where PIPA or another law permits or requires otherwise — for example, in an emergency where consent cannot be obtained, or where a legal or professional obligation requires disclosure.

For clinical care, consent is part of the conversation we have with you at intake and before treatment. For clinical photographs, we ask separately and specifically.

Consent to receive marketing is kept separate from consent to treatment. Declining clinic updates has no effect on your care.

You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal and professional limits, by contacting us. We will explain what withdrawing consent means in your situation — in some cases it may limit the care we can provide safely, and we would rather you knew that in advance than discovered it afterwards.

Email updates

The clinic updates box on our contact form is unticked by default and stays that way unless you tick it. That is deliberate: under Canada’s anti-spam legislation, commercial email requires your express consent, and a pre-ticked box is not consent.

Every update we send identifies the clinic, includes our mailing address and a way to contact us, and includes a working unsubscribe link. If you unsubscribe, we stop. Unsubscribing never affects your clinical care or your ability to book.

Who else sees your information

Access within the clinic is limited to those who need it to do their work. Beyond that, your information may be shared in these circumstances:

• Service providers we use to run the clinic — including our practice management and booking system, laboratory partners, pharmacy partners where a prescription is involved, our payment processor, and our website provider. Where a third party processes, stores, or disposes of personal information on our behalf, we are required to have a written agreement obliging them to maintain the access, confidentiality, and security protections the law requires.
• Other healthcare providers involved in your care, where you have consented or where a referral requires it.
• Where required or permitted by law — including a court order, subpoena, or warrant, and legal, regulatory, or professional obligations.

Where your information is stored

Clinical records are held in our practice management system. Website enquiries and email are handled by separate providers. Some of these providers may process or store information on servers outside Canada, in which case that information may be subject to the laws of the country it is stored in.

PIPA does not prohibit storing personal information outside Canada, but we think you should be told where your information goes. If you would like to know the current storage location for a specific system we use, ask us and we will find out and tell you.

This is a further reason not to put medical information into the website contact form.

How we protect it

• Clinical records are held in a password-protected system with access limited to authorized personnel
• Anyone with access to personal information is subject to written confidentiality requirements
• This website is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS)
• Physical records and devices are kept secure at the clinic
• Access is granted on the basis of what a person needs to do their job, and no more

No system is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can tell you is that we take this seriously, and that we limit what we collect in the first place — information we do not hold cannot be exposed.

If something goes wrong

If personal information in our care is lost, or accessed, used, or disclosed without authorization, we will act to contain and recover it, investigate how it happened, and notify affected individuals and the appropriate authorities in line with our legal and professional obligations.

How long we keep it

Under the BCCNM bylaws that govern Nurse Practitioner records, client care records must be kept for at least 16 years from the date of the last entry, or — if the patient was a minor — at least 16 years from the date they turn 19, whichever is later. We retain records for at least these periods, and longer where there is a clinical or legal reason to do so.

Non-clinical information, such as a website enquiry that does not lead to an appointment, is kept only as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for, and is then securely destroyed. Where we have used personal information to make a decision that directly affects you, we keep it for at least one year after that decision so that you have a reasonable opportunity to request access to it.

When records are destroyed, paper is shredded and electronic records are erased so that they cannot be reconstructed.

Your rights

Under PIPA you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you, including how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed
• Request a correction if you believe something in your record is inaccurate or incomplete
• Withdraw consent, subject to legal and professional limits

To make a request, contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. Please put your request in writing. We may need to verify your identity first — that protects you. We will respond within 30 business days, unless we are permitted to extend that time, in which case we will tell you.

If we correct your record, we will notify any organization we disclosed that information to in the previous year. If we decide not to make a correction you have asked for, we will annotate your record to show that the correction was requested and not made, and we will tell you why.

There is no charge for access to your own health information in most cases. Where a request involves substantial work or copying costs, we will give you a written estimate before we begin, and you can decide whether to proceed.

Contact our Privacy Officer

Questions, requests, and complaints about how we handle personal information go to our Privacy Officer:

Please mark privacy enquiries for the attention of the Privacy Officer so they reach the right person.

If you are not satisfied

If you have raised a concern with us in writing and you are not satisfied with how it was handled, you may ask the independent regulator to review it. In most cases you need to have complained to us in writing first.

Elsewhere in BC you can call Service BC at 1-800-663-7867 and ask to be transferred to 250-387-5629.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle personal information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Material changes will be brought to patients’ attention directly.