Valewood Clinic respects your right to privacy and is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our customers and website users. We adhere to the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) contained in the Privacy Act 1988. This policy will outline how you as a patient of the Valewood Clinic will have your personal information including your health information, collected and used by our medical centre, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties. ‘Personal Information’ refers to information we hold which is identifiable as being about you.
Valewood Clinic will receive and store personal information, provided to us directly or given to us in other forms. You may provide basic information such as your name, phone number, address and email address to enable us to send and receive information in order to provide the best care possible to you. We may collect additional information at other times including but not limited to:
• Personal details including names, date of birth, address, contact details
• Your medical history including medications, family history, allergies and immunisations
• Notes made during your medical consultations including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisation, social history, family history and risk factors.
• Referrals to other medical services
• Reports and results received from other medical services
• Medicare number
• Health fund details
• Healthcare identifiers
• Credit card or direct debit information for billing
• We may also collect any other information you provide while interacting with us
Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. Wherever possible we will obtain information from you at the Valewood Clinic, by phone, by written correspondence or online. We may also need to collect your information from other healthcare providers. In an emergency, we may need to collect information from your family, friends or carers.
Your personal information will only be used or disclosed for purposes directly related to providing you with quality health care, or in ways you would reasonably expect us to use it in order to provide you with this service.
This includes use or disclosure:
– to the professional team directly involved in your health care, including treating doctors, pathology services, radiology services and other specialists outside this medical practice. For example, this may occur through referral to other doctors when requesting medical tests or in the report or result returned to us following the referrals;
– to the Practice’s administrative staff for billing and other administrative tasks necessary to run our practice. Our staff are trained in the handling of personal information in accordance with the Practice Privacy Policy;
– to your health insurance fund, Medicare or other organisations responsible for the financial aspects of your care;
– where required by law, for example, pursuant to a subpoena;
– to insurers or lawyers for the defence of a medical claim; and/or – to assist with training and education of other health care professionals.
If you do not wish for your information to be used for the training of health professionals, please advise us at Reception at our clinic.
Our practise does not intend to disclose your personal information to overseas recipients.
Our practise will collect your personal information in the following ways:
1. When you make your first appointment we will collect your personal information on a registration form.
2. During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information including but not limited to the MyHealth Record/PCEHR system and other eHealth services including Health Engine and/or Hot Docs.
3. When you send us an email, phone us, make an appointment or communicate with us.
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 a responsible person
– Other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services
– Medicare or the Department of Veteran’s Affairs
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 (e.g. a court order)
– 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 (e.g. some diseases require mandatory notification)
– During the course of providing medical services, through MyHealth Record/PCEHR system (e.g. via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary) Health Engine, Hot Docs and other eHealth services.
Only people that 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.
Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms, e.g. as paper records, as electronic records, as visual (X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos).
Our practice stores all personal information securely, in electronic format, in protected information systems or in hard copy format in a secured environment.
All of our staff and contractors who may have access to personal information are required to sign confidentiality agreements. All staff have their own passwords to access confidential information electronically and each person’s password is not permitted to be shared with any other person.
We endeavor to ensure our website is as secure as possible however, users need to be aware that the World Wide Web (The internet) is not a secure medium. Valewood Clinic and its associates take no liability for any interference or damage to a user’s computer system, software or data occurring in connection with this website. We strongly recommend users take appropriate measures to ensure their computer is protected against third party interference whilst on the internet.
Our website may contain links to external websites which Valewood Clinic uses to improve the services we offer and expand upon the information readily available to you. Once a user decides to click on a link and navigate away from the Valewood Clinic website the privacy policy noted here is no longer in effect. We recommend users familiarise themselves with the privacy policies on these websites once they browse and interact with them. Recommendations or views purported on these websites are not necessarily reflective of those of Valewood Clinic and its associates.
Valewood Clinic will not collect any personal information about you from your use of our website, except where you have provided such information to Valewood Clinic In specifically and knowingly providing any personal information to Valewood Clinic via our website, you consent to Valewood Clinic using that personal information lawfully at its sole and absolute discretion, including for the purposes of providing promotional and marketing materials by other means.
You warrant that you have obtained the consent of any third person whose personal information you post via our website. For record-keeping purposes, Valewood Clinic may retain copies of email sent to it by you. Our website contains links to other sites that are not affiliated or associated with, or controlled by Valewood Clinic and we have no responsibility for their privacy practices and this Privacy Policy applies only to those parts of the website within the control of Valewood Clinic.
Valewood Clinic may change its Privacy Policy from time to time at its discretion and without notice. If any such changes are made, Valewood Clinic will make all reasonable efforts to bring those changes to the attention of its users.
You have the right to request access to and correct 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 a reasonable time. Reasonable fees which reflect the costs of complying with your request may be charged by us in providing this information to you. However, patients will not be charged for making the request.
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 may ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and up to date. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing by email or letter to us.
In the instance where you are dissatisfied with the level of service provided within the clinic, we encourage you to discuss any concerns relating to the privacy of your information with the Practice Manager We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing to us at the following address:
Valewood Clinic
1-3 Wanda Street
Mulgrave 3170
Phone 03 9560 6655
Fax 03 9561 5317
We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure.
If the complaint has not been resolved to your level of satisfaction you may contact:
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
enquiries@oaic.gov.au
https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint
Health Complaints Commissioner
1300 582 113
hcc@hcc.vic.gov.au
https://hcc.vic.gov.au/contact
In addition to our professional and ethical obligations, at a minimum, our clinic handles your personal information in accordance with federal and state privacy law. This includes complying with the Federal Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) forming part of the Privacy Act 1988 and the Victorian Health Privacy Principles (HPPs) forming part of the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic). More information about the APPs and HPPs can be found on the Australian Information Commissioner’s website www.oaic.gov.au . For further information call the OAIC on 1300 336 002.
