Website Privacy Notice

This privacy statement explains the privacy practices for the Shouldice Hospital website.

Shouldice Hospital is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of patients and website visitors. We also protect your privacy whether you are browsing for information or communicating with the Hospital through electronic channels.

The Hospital is subject to Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) with respect to how it collects, uses, discloses and otherwise handles personal (non-health) information about individuals, such as information you may provide through our “contact us” web form. For information on how we protect personal health information subject to the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) please see our Statement of Information Practices.

When you visit our website, we will not collect your personal information unless you choose to use online services that require it. When you request medical services or book an appointment online, you will be redirected to provide your personal health information through our secure online portal.

Where you submit your personal information to the Hospital online (through the “contact us” options, or while using our chat bot), you understand and agree to us collecting your personal information in order to respond to your query or to contact you. The Hospital will not use your personal information for other purposes without your knowledge or consent.

Information collection and use

Shouldice Hospital collects information from our users at several different points on our website. The Hospital is the sole owner of the information collected through this site. We will not sell, share or rent this information to others, although we may be required to inspect or provide log or other data pursuant to a lawful investigation court order for production.

Contact forms

The website has a contact form that includes personal information. This information is not stored in a database. The information is placed into the body of an associated internal email and is used to provide us with information so we may respond to your query or request.

Website Analytics

We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track visitors’ movements on the site, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We do not link IP addresses to personally identifiable information.

Cookies

Cookies are small files placed on your computer’s hard drive or in your browser memory when you visit a website. Cookies help to make the interaction between users and websites faster and easier. Necessary cookies must be kept active during your visits to our website for the site to work properly for you. For example, you won’t be able to sign in to your account or complete the questionnaire if cookies are disabled.

Our site uses minimal external cookies. Google Chrome/Microsoft Edge users: to see cookies directly from our site, right-click anywhere and select “Inspect”, go to the Application or Storage tab and under Storage select Cookies to see URL information about the cookies we use. Safari/Mac users: Enable Develop Menu in Preferences->Advanced, open the site then see Develop>Show Web Inspector, then look under Storage>Cookies.

Links and intermediaries

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that Shouldice Hospital is not responsible for the privacy practices of any external sites. We encourage our website visitors to read the privacy statements of external websites to make informed decisions about how you engage with them.

Shouldice Hospital takes reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. Despite these safeguards, no internet transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Notification of changes

If there are changes to our website privacy practices, we will post notice of those changes here.

If you have any questions about our website privacy practices, please contact our privacy office at: [email protected]

March 2026