Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act sets the rules for clinics and other health practices. If your practice uses Muse, here is what Muse does with a patient’s call, what we have set up for health practices, and what stays your job.
Please read this first. Muse takes calls. It is not a medical record, it gives no medical advice, and it is not for emergencies. Keep your clinical notes in your own record system. We do not claim that using AskMuse makes a practice compliant with PHIPA. That is your practice’s responsibility, and we build the product to support it.
Under PHIPA, the health practice is the custodian of its patients’ information. When Muse answers for your practice, AskMuse handles what a caller says on your practice’s behalf, only to run the service. Your practice stays responsible for that information.
If you handle health information, talk to us before you go live. It needs a written agreement between us, and we will sign one.
Our database and our file storage are in Canada. Here is what sits there. Check that this fits your practice’s own rules and your college’s guidance before you go live.
| What | Where it is stored | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Your account and business details | Canada | Name, hours, services, greeting. Your password is stored hashed. |
| Leads and bookings | Canada | What callers shared and the appointments Muse booked. |
| Call records and transcripts | Canada | Kept in our database. |
| Call recordings (only if you turn recording on) | Canada | Kept in our file storage for 90 days, then deleted. |
This table covers what we store. For how a call is handled while it happens, and the kinds of providers involved, see our Privacy Policy. If you need the supplier list for a security review, email us and we will send it.
These are our real defaults today. You can ask us to delete anything sooner.
| What | How long | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Call audio | 90 days after the call | Only exists if you turned recording on. A daily job deletes it. The transcript stays. |
| Transcripts, call summaries, leads and bookings | Until you delete them or close your account | You can delete one call, or ask us to. |
| Your account, if you close it | Deleted within 30 days of your request | We confirm by email. Invoices are kept for the period Canadian tax law requires. |
| Busy times read from your calendar | Not stored | Used for the request in hand only. |
Health practices usually have to keep clinical records for many years. Muse is not your record system, so do not rely on our copy for that.
If a breach of our safeguards affects your practice’s information, we tell you as soon as we know. We say what happened, what was affected and what we are doing about it. That lets your practice notify the patients affected and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, as PHIPA requires of you.
A patient can ask the practice for access to their information, ask for a correction, and complain. Those requests go to the practice, because the practice is the custodian. If a patient writes to us, email info@askmuse.ca and a person will read it. When the practice asks, we help it find, correct or delete what Muse holds.
PHIPA is Ontario’s law. Other provinces have their own health privacy laws.
Questions, requests and complaints about how we handle information.
info@askmuse.ca
Muse Nexus, Ontario, Canada
Patients and practices can contact the Commissioner about health privacy in Ontario.
For private-sector privacy outside health information, see PIPEDA and your callers’ information. The federal Commissioner is at priv.gc.ca.
We do not put that label on ourselves. PHIPA places the duties on the practice, and compliance depends on how the practice uses the service. This page says exactly what Muse does so your practice can judge for itself.
We handle information for your practice and only to run the service, and your practice stays responsible for it. Whether that makes us an “agent” or a service provider under PHIPA is a legal question for your own advisor. Talk to us before you go live, and we will sign a written agreement.
No. Muse is set up never to ask for them. If a caller names their insurer, Muse keeps the insurer’s name only.
The text and email say who called, their number and what happened. They do not repeat what the caller said. You read the rest in your dashboard.
Yes. Account data, leads, bookings, call records, transcripts and recordings are stored in Canada. For how a call is handled while it happens, see our Privacy Policy.
Every spoken call is transcribed. Audio recording is off until your practice switches it on. When it is on, Muse says the call is recorded and transcribed.
The speech recognition provider on our English, French and Spanish lines is told, on every request, not to use calls to train its models. Our other AI providers handle calls under their own API terms.