DISCLAIMER

The Occupational Therapy Blog and Website is a news and health promotion initiative. It by no means aims to be a source of medical or therapeutic advice. We enjoy sharing information and will attempt to curate it as best we can. You’d appreciate we like to lighten our blog articles which often tackles very serious and personal issues. It’s our way of sharing. The information contained on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, or intervention. Always seek the advice of your GP or qualified therapist with any questions you may have regarding your personal situation. Never substitute or delay seeking professional advice because of information you’ve read on this website.

Occupational Therapy Brisbane for Get Healthcare Direct Pty Ltd Privacy Policy

Current as of: Jan 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. We are committed to protecting the privacy of patient information and to handling your personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth), the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, the Australian Privacy Principles and relevant state and territory privacy legislation (referred to as privacy legislation).  This privacy policy explains how we collect, use and disclose your personal information, how you may access that information and how you may seek the correction of any information. It also explains how you may make a complaint about a breach of privacy legislation. This privacy policy is current from Jan 2020.  From time to time we may make changes to our policy, processes and systems in relation to how we handle your personal information. We will update this privacy policy to reflect any changes. Those changes will be available on our website and in the practice.

Why and when your consent is necessary

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our Occupational Therapists 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 other than described herein, 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 and associated therapeutic activities. 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).

What personal information do we collect?

The information we will collect about you includes your:
  •     names, date of birth, addresses, contact details
  •     therapy information including therapy history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
  •     Medicare and NDIS 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. Our practice management team will provide you with a collection statement over the phone/ email prior to collecting your personal sensitive information.
  2.   During the course of providing therapy services, we may collect further personal information. Examples of other sources of personal information include
  • NDIS Plans, WorkCover Referrals, Shared Health Summary, Discharge Summaries, Event Summary for example. 
  1.   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.
  2.   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, NDIS support coordinators 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 and is considered an extension of clinical services:
  • 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, Public Guardian and QCAT)
  • when it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, negligence of care, capacity or vulnerability to abuse or it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent. This may include reporting to the Public Guardian, QCAT or the police
  • 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 therapy services
Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so.  Other than in the course of providing therapy 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. The practice uses overseas technology such as 
  • transcription services, email communication, practice management software, education and training services and clinical assessment tool
  • 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. We regularly complete clinical reporting to third parties such as 
  • NDIS 
  • Healthcare providers
  • DVA
  • WorkCover
  • Public agencies such as the Public Trustee, Public Guardian or QCAT
which will include personal information related to your specific therapy services.  Such therapy reports will only be forwarded to specific secondary services or third party representatives who are associated with your case.  Information may related to quotes, prescribed equipment, home modifications or functional assessment reports With regards to the NDIS we will commonly submit reporting to
  • NDIS specific email: enquiries@ndis.gov.au

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms.  The practice is a paperless practice, any information received on paper will be scanned and added into our clinical practice management system. Other information collated may also include and not limited to:
  •  electronic records, visual records( videos and photos), plans, notes, audio recordings where indicated, reports
Our practice stores all personal information securely in electronic format, in protected information systems which is double password protected. All staff members agree to and abide by our internal confidentiality agreement and policy.  

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 therapy records. We require you to put this request in writing and direct this to  Occupational Therapy Brisbane  PO Box 1030  Lutwyche QLD 4030 and our practice will respond within 30 to 60 days. In order to complete this service an essential administrative fee of $60.00 is payable before release of information.  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 Practice Manager support(at)gethealthcaredirect.com.au Any Concerns? If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, please write to us support(at)gethealthcaredirect.com.au and let us know what the problem is. We will respond to your concerns within 30 to 60 days. Practice Manager  1300 783 200 Support(at)gethealthcaredirect.com.au  Post: PO Box 1030  Lutwyche QLD 4030 If you are not happy with how we manage your concerns, you can contact the Australian Privacy Commission, available at http://www.oaic.gov.au. Privacy and our website We may use a range of tools provided by third parties including search engine browsers, analytics tools and our web hosting company, to collect or view website traffic information. These sites have their own privacy policies. We may also use cookies and session tools to improve your experience when accessing our website. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. Some website features may not function properly without cookies. The information collected by these tools may include the IP address of the device you are using and information about sites that IP address has come from, the pages accessed on our site and the next site visited. We use the information to help to track your use of our websites to improve your user experience and the quality of our services.  To find out how to opt out of tailored advertising please check the options available here – http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.   < END> 
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