MEDICAID MEDICAL CLINIC PRIVACY POLICY

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 in with third parties.

Why & when 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 that needs 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. This is detailed on the New Patient consent information sheet.

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

The information we will collect about you includes your: names, date of birth, addresses, contact details, medical information including medical histsory, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history & risk factors. Medicare number (where available) for identification & 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 differant ways, upon your first attendance at the practice staff will collect your personal & demographic information via your registration. During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information & via the electron transfer of prescriptions (Safe scripts or eTP) introduced by Health in October 2018, My health Record shared via a Shared Health or Event Summary. We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website (only as a deidentified data statistic), send us an email or telephone us. 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, diagnostic imaging services your health fund, Medicare, or DVA (as required).

When, why & 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 of 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 a shared Health Summary. Only people who need to aqccess your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing medical services or as otherwise describe 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 is permitted by law) without your consent.

How do we store & protect your personal information?

Your personal information is stored at our practice in electronic form; any correspondence arriving in hard copy will be scanned to your file after vetting by your Doctor. The hard copy will then be securely stored for shredding. Our practice stores all personal information securely. Any incoming electronic results are transmitted by an encrypted internet service in additon to any transmissions of referrals or correspondence to external health care providers, such as Specialists, Hospitals or allied health providers.

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

You have the right to request to access, and correction of, your personal information. Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their medical records. We require you to put this in request in writing and our practice will respond within a reasonable time, this is usually within 7 days unless it is indicated to be of an urgent nature. 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 held by our practice is correct & current. In turn we request that you inform us of any change of contact details including your Emergency contact person, email address, PO Box & phone number

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

We take complaints & 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. Conctact details for Geelong clinic are: Medicaid 265 Ryrie St Geelong Vic 3220; e: medicaid@bigpond.net.au. You may also contact OAIC. Generally the OAIC wil 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 preview statement

This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis and upon any changes to the Privacy act; these changes will be notified on our website