Reef Orthopaedic Clinic – Privacy Policy
Revised 9th September 2020
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.
Why and when your consent is necessary
When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our Doctors 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 (e.g. staff training).
What personal information do we collect?
The information we 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 or DVA number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes, although we will not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
- healthcare identifiers
- health fund detailsDealing with us anonymously
As a Medical Practice, it is largely impracticable to deal with patients anonymously or via a pseudonym. The provision of medical services is likely to be impacted, and billing via Medicare, DVA or a Health insurer where applicable, is likely to be impracticable. Of course, in some instances a patient seeking certain treatments may be prepared to forego notifying their insurer or seeking a Medicare benefit and pay the practice direct. Our Practice Staff would assess these individual requests on a case by case basis.
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.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.
- 3.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
- Your guardian or responsible person
- Other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging service
- your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary)
When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?
- We sometime 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 (e.g. 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 consentto assist in locating a missing person
- when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (e.g. some diseases require mandatory notification)
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.
How do we store and protect your personal information?
Our Staff are trained and required to respect and protect your privacy. We take reasonable steps to protect information held from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes:
- software and Hardware Firewalls
- in transit data encryption
- strong password protection and user access policies
- all of our staff sign confidentiality agreements.
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 apply to recover costs of providing copies of personal information contained in medical records.
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: manager@reefortho.com.au
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. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure. Please address your complaint to the Practice Manager, Reef Orthopaedic Clinic, 42-44 Florence Street, Cairns 4870 QLD or alternatively email: manager@reefortho.com.au. We will normally respond to your request within 30 days.
If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the OAIC:
Phone: 1300 363 991
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Post: GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Website: http://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint
Privacy and our website
Website Links
We may provide links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content of privacy practices employed by third party websites that are linked from our website.
Interaction via email
Reef Orthopaedic Clinic interacts with patients and third parties via email. Whilst incoming and outgoing emails are in transit to and from our mail server they are protected by our encryption, once the receiving mail server receives the message Reef Orthopaedic Clinic is no longer able to protect the contents of the message or how it is dealt with by the receiving parties i.e. mail servers that do not accept encrypted messages.
Cookies
You can choose to interact or contact us via our website. Please note most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer.
A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be ready by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.
Policy review statement
This policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and other necessary developments. Updates will be publicised on the practice’s website. Please see Practice Staff to view a copy of our privacy policy if you do not have access to internet. A notification of any updates to our policy will be displayed at our reception desk.
Contact details for privacy related issues:
Please address your enquiry to the Practice Manager:
Name: Michelle Steene
Address: Reef Orthopaedic Clinic, 42-44 Florence Street, Cairns 4870 QLD
Phone: 07 4041 8000
Email: manager@reefortho.com.au
