Privacy Policy
Background
This document provides information to patients on how their personal information (including health information) is collected and used, including the circumstances when their information may be shared with third parties.
Policy Statements
We require your consent to collect, use, store, and share your personal information
At the time you register with our practice, we will ask for you to provide consent for the medical and practice staff to collect and use your personal information. This is to ensure we have the most complete and up to date information to provide you with the best possible medical care. Staff will only be permitted to access your personal information if this is required for your medical care. If we need to access your information for any other reason, we will obtain consent from you to do this.
In order to provide the best possible medical care, our practice will need to collect some personal information about you. This information is used, stored and shared primarily for the purpose of delivering health services. Your information may be used for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits, site accreditation and business processes.
We collect the following personal information
Personal information we collect includes the following:
Names, date of birth, addresses, contact details for yourself and alternative contacts (if you decide to provide this)
Medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, social history, family history, travel history and medical risk factors
Medicare number (where applicable) for identification and claim purposes
Health fund details (where applicable)
You may elect to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless we are required or authorised by law to deal with only identified individuals or if it impractical to do so.
Instances where personal information may be collected
There are several instances when we may collect your personal information:
At the time of booking your first appointment and at registration, practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information.
During your medical consultation
When you contact us via telephone, short messaging service (SMS) or email
When it is not practical or reasonable to collect information from you directly, we may collect this from your guardian or listed support person, your other healthcare providers (including your GP, other specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services, pathology services and diagnostic imaging services), Medicare, your private health fund (if applicable) or the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (if applicable).
Sharing of personal information will only occur in specific circumstances
Only when required, your personal information may be shared:
With other healthcare providers (including your GP, other specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services, pathology services and diagnostic imaging services)
With third parties who work with the practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers
When it is required or authorised by law
When there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (such as in the mandatory notification of certain diseases)
When it is necessary to prevent or reduce a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety as well as public health or safety, or it is not practical to obtain consent from the patient
To assist with locating a missing person
To establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
When providing medical services through electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP), My Health Record or other electronic medical services (if applicable)
Only people who require access to your personal information will be able to do so. Apart from during the course of providing medical services or in the situations described above, we will not share your personal information with any third part without your consent (preferably written consent). Your personal information will not be shared with anyone outside of Australia without your consent (unless in the exceptional circumstance where we are required or authorised by law). We do not use your personal information for marketing of any of our services unless we have your express written consent. Even with your written consent, you may elect to opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying the practice in writing. This will not have any bearing on your medical care. We maintain an active commitment to research, internal and external audits, teaching and continuing medical education. Your de-identified medical information may be used in such activities. At no stage, will any of the information used identify you in any way. Information that may be used includes age, medical history, clinical photographs (only with your consent), de-identified blood test results, de-identified imaging test results and treatment plan.
Storage and protection of personal information
We store your personal information primarily in electronic form with limited use of paper records. All personal information is securely stored on remote cloud hosted servers. The data is stored on physical hardware clusters operated by our IT provider. All practice staff including contractors adhere to this privacy policy.
During your medical consultation, your personal information may be dictated and stored electronically as an audio file. This data is held locally at the practice before being transcribed by a typist, who strictly adheres to this privacy policy. Your data is never sent, copied or stored outside of Australia.
Patients have the right to access and correct their personal information
Patients have the right to access their collected personal information. Patients are required to make this request in email to reception@shirespecialists.com.au. Copies of your collected information will be provided at a cost of 50 AUD per hour for administrative staff time and printing costs (15 cents per page). There may be additional costs if it is deemed necessary for a medical practitioner to review your personal information, but this will be discussed with you at the time of your request.
Patients have the right to correct their collected personal information. On occasion, we may ask to verify your personal information to make sure your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may request we correct or update your personal information and this should be done via an email to reception@shirespecialists.com.au.
Privacy-related concerns or complaints
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have a concern or issue in relation to how we collect, store, use or disclose your personal information. Any privacy-related concerns or complaints should be directed in writing to reception@shirespecialists.com.au. We take any concerns or complaints around privacy very seriously and will attempt to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. You will always receive a formal response in writing. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may make an application to the Australian Information Commissioner or the NSW Privacy Commissioner.
Policy Review Statement
This privacy policy is reviewed yearly. Last updated 02 February 2021