Eat Speak Learn provides clients the opportunity to communicate with Eat Speak Learn by email. Transmitting confidential client information by email, however, has a number of risks, both general and specific, that Clients should consider before using email.

Among general email risks are the following:

• Email can be immediately broadcast worldwide and be received by many intended and unintended recipients.
• Recipients can forward email messages to other recipients without the original sender’s permission or knowledge.
• Users can easily misaddress an email.
• Email is easier to falsify than handwritten or signed documents.
• Backup copies of email may exist even after the sender or the recipient has deleted his or her copy.

Among specific client email risks are the following:

• Email containing information pertaining to a client’s treatment may be included in the client’s medical or financial records. Thus, all individuals who have access to the medical record or financial record will have access to the email messages.
• Employees do not have an expectation of privacy in email that they send or receive at their place of employment. Thus, clients who send or receive email from their place of employment risk having their employer read their email.
• Clients have no way of anticipating how soon Eat Speak Learn and its employees and agents will respond to a particular email message. Although Eat Speak Learn and its employees and agents will endeavour to read and respond to email promptly, Eat Speak Learn cannot guarantee that any particular email message will be read and responded to within any particular period of time.
• Eat Speak Learn’s employees and agents may be traveling, be engaged in other duties, or be on a vacation or a break and therefore be unable to continually monitor whether they have received email.

It is the policy of Eat Speak Learn to make all email messages sent or received that concern identifiable health information ( i.e. medical, financial, demographic, and lifestyle information) part of that client’s medical, financial, or other records. Eat Speak Learn will treat such email messages with the same degree of confidentiality as afforded other portions of the medical record. Our Clinic will use reasonable means to protect the security and confidentiality of email information. Because of the risks outlined above, Clinic cannot, however, guarantee the security and confidentiality of email communications. Thus, Clients must consent to the use of email for confidential medical information after having been informed of the above risks.

Consent to the use of email includes agreement with the following conditions:

• All emails to or from the client concerning treatment will be made a part of the client’s records. As a part of medical record or other records, other individuals, such as other therapists, client accounts personnel, and the like, may have access to email messages contained in medical records.
• Eat Speak Learn may forward email messages within the Clinic as necessary for recommendations, treatment, and reimbursement. Eat Speak Learn will not, however, forward the email outside the facility without the consent of the client or as required by law.
• If the client sends an email to Eat Speak Learn, one of its employees or agents will endeavour to read the email promptly and to respond promptly, if warranted. Eat Speak Learn, however, can provide no assurance that the recipient of a particular email will read the email message promptly.
• If a client’s email requires or invites a response, and the recipient does not respond within a reasonable time, the client is responsible for following up to determine whether the intended recipient has received the email and when the recipient will respond.
• Eat Speak Learn cannot guarantee that electronic communications will be private. Eat Speak Learn will take reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality of client email, but are not liable for improper disclosure of confidential information not caused by Eat Speak Learn’s gross negligence or wanton misconduct.
• If the client consents to the use of email, the client is responsible for informing Clinic of any types of information that the client does not want to be sent by email other than those set out above.
• The Client is responsible for protecting client’s password or other means of access to email sent or received from Eat Speak Learn to protect confidentiality. Eat Speak Learn is not liable for breaches of confidentiality caused by the Client.

Any further use of email by the client that discusses treatment by the client constitutes informed consent to the foregoing. You may withdraw consent to the future use of email at any time by email or written communication to Clinic, attention: Practice Manager.