Current as of: 16/04/2024  This policy is reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with changes that occur.

Introduction

This privacy policy is to provide information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

Keen Street Clinic is committed to ensuring your personal information is professionally managed in accordance with Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

Why and when your consent is necessary

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our GPs and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will seek additional consent from you to do this.

Why do we collect, use, hold and share your personal information?

Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide healthcare services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (eg staff training).

Definition of a Patient Health Record

The primary purpose of a health record is to provide a complete and accurate description of the patient’s medical history. This includes medical conditions, diagnoses, the care and treatment you provide, and results of such treatments. We collect information that is necessary and relevant to provide you with medical care and treatment, and manage our medical practice. The type of information we may collect and hold includes:

• your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
• Medicare number , DVA number and other government identifiers, although we will not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
• Other health information about you, including:
  • notes of your symptoms or diagnosis and the treatment given to you
  • your specialist reports and test results
  • your appointment and billing details
  • your prescriptions and other pharmaceutical purchases
  • your dental records
  • your genetic information
  • your healthcare identifier
  • any other information about your race, sexuality or religion, when collected by a health service provider.

What personal information do we collect?

The information we will collect about you includes your:

• names, date of birth, addresses, contact details
• medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
• Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
• healthcare identifiers
• health fund details.

Dealing with us anonymously

You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.

How do we collect your personal information?

Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways.

1. When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration.
2. During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information.
   
   Information can also be collected through electronic transfer of prescriptions (eTP), My Health Record, eg via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary. You will need to specify if your practice participates in any of these eHealth services.
3. We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media.
4. In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is because it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:
   • your guardian or responsible person
   • other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services
   • your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).

When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?

We sometimes share your personal information:

• with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with APPs and this policy
• with other healthcare providers
• when it is required or authorised by law (eg court subpoenas)
• when it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent
• to assist in locating a missing person
• to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
• for the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process
• when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (eg some diseases require mandatory notification)
• during the course of providing medical services, through eTP, My Health Record (eg via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary).

Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.

We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying our practice in writing.

Our practice may use your personal information to improve the quality of the services we offer to our patients through research and analysis of our patient data.

We may provide de-identified data to other organisations to improve population health outcomes. The information is secure, patients cannot be identified and the information is stored within Australia. You can let our reception staff know if you do not want your information included.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms.

As paper records, electronic records, visual records (X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos), audio recordings.

Our practice stores all personal information securely.

In electronic format, in protected information systems or in hard copy format in a secured environment. Provide specific examples such as your use of passwords, secure cabinets, confidentiality agreements for staff and contractors. However, you should not provide details that would jeopardise the effectiveness of your security measures.

Document automation technologies that can access your personal information

We use automation technologies that can access your personal information, including:

Referral templates.  When a doctor writes a referral for you to visit another medical specialist, some of your personal medical information is automatically extracted from your records and added to the referral documents.  Different templates are used for different referral types and circumstances, extracting the specific medical information appropriate to the addressed specialist.

Automated reminders.  Our medical software searches our database of medical records for important upcoming events (such as specific, important appointments) and sends automated SMS messages.

E-report delivery software.  Blood analysis, medical imaging, medical practices and other medical institutions that a patient visits for tests or procedures will send us medical reports about the patients.  These are automatically assigned to our doctors for review or manually flagged for administrative intervention if any personal details are incorrect or dubious (eg misspellings in patient names or birthdate).

De-identified and anonymised study scripts.  See “When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?” for more information.

How can you access and correct your personal information at our practice?

You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.

Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their medical records. We require you to put this request in writing  and our practice will respond within 30 days.  Fees may apply.

Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing to the practice manager 22 Keen Street Lismore.

How can you lodge a privacy-related complaint, and how will the complaint be handled at our practice?

We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing addressed to the Practice Manager. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure. You may also contact the OAIC. Generally, the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond before they will investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.

Policy Review Statement

This policy will be reviewed by Keen Street Clinic on a regular basis to ensure that it continues to adhere to the Australian Privacy Principles. Should an update of this policy be required, an updated version will be published on the website.  This policy was last reviewed 16/04/2024