We are committed to ensuring
that your personal information is kept private and confidential.
This Privacy Policy sets out
how we use and manage your personal information. Personal information includes
information that can identify you and information about your past and current
health. As a provider of health services, we are bound by the Australian
Privacy Principles contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988. We also have professional and ethical obligations
to protect your privacy and keep your personal information confidential.
What information
do we collect?
We
will only collect information that is necessary to provide our services and
carry on our dental practice.
We
collect the following types of personal information from patients and
prospective patients:
name and contact details;
age, date of birth and gender;
dental history and previous dentists;
medical history;
details about your current health and
medications; and
health insurance details.
We
collect personal information from you if you ask us to claim directly to your
health fund when you are paying your account (through HICAPS). This includes
your credit card details if you pay by credit card.
2. How do we collect your personal information?
We
collect personal information in several ways. You may be asked by us to complete
a patient questionnaire and give us information we need to provide dental
services to you in a safe and appropriate manner. This information includes your
details of your dental and medical history and your current health. You may also
be asked to provide personal information verbally to our dentists or other
staff members.
We
may also collect personal information about you from third parties if you have agreed
that they can provide us with this information. For example, we may collect
information from:
your health insurance provider;
Medicare; and
other dentists, dental specialists or other
health practitioners (including your General Practitioner).
If a person
is unable to provide us with personal information which we need to provide them
with dental services (for example if the patient is a young child or lacks the
capacity to provide these details) we will require this information to be
provided by the patient’s legal guardian or another person who is legally
entitled to act for that person.
3. How do we use your personal information?
We
may use your personal information for any of the following purposes:
to assess whether we can safely provide you
with our dental services;
to maintain and administer your patient file;
to invoice you for our fees;
to process your health insurance claims;
to contact you for follow up services and check-up
reminders;
to collect unpaid invoices; and
to send information to you about our dental
practice.
4. How do we make sure that your information is accurate?
We
take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect from
you is accurate, up-to-date and complete. These steps include:
5. How do we protect and store your information?
We
provide ongoing training to our staff to ensure the personal information which
we hold about you is kept confidential.
We
keep hard copy and electronic records of all patients’ personal information. We
take steps to protect these records against loss, misuse, unauthorised access,
use, modification or disclosure. We ensure that hard copies of records are kept
in locked files and there are security processes in place regarding computer
access. We take steps to ensure that electronic data is backed up.
We,
or our contracted data storage providers, may use servers, systems and cloud
computing providers outside Australia. We use our best endeavours to ensure
that our storage providers are required to comply with Australian Privacy laws.
After
a period of 7 years (or in the case of a person under 18, until the person
turns 25) we may securely destroy or de-identify your records in accordance
with Australian laws.
5. When will we disclose your personal information?
We
will disclose your personal information to third parties if you have agreed
that we can do so. For example, we will disclose your personal information:
if you ask us in writing or provide us with
your written consent to disclose your information to a third party;
in an emergency situation, if you have
nominated relatives or next of kin as emergency contacts;
to other dentists, dental specialists and
healthcare providers, for the purpose of seeking a second opinion or a
referral; and
to laboratories and dental specialists
(within Australia or overseas) to provide advisory services relating to your
treatment.
We
may also disclose specific personal information (your name, address, contact
details and amount owing to us) to debt collection providers engaged by us if
you do not pay our invoices within the required time.
Other
than as set out in this Section 5, we will only disclose your personal
information without your agreement if we are legally required to do so. Under
the Privacy Act, we must disclose your personal information if we are directed
to do so by a government or regulatory body (including Medicare) or a statutory
body (eg a court or a tribunal) with legal powers to obtain your information.
6. Accessing your personal information
You
have the right to access the personal information that we hold about you. You
can contact us in writing, by email or by telephone and request access to your
personal information. Our contact
details are set out in Section 8 of this Policy. We will always try to meet
your request within a reasonable time.
In
some circumstances, your request for access may be denied. These circumstances
include:
if we no longer hold any personal information
about you;
if your request is frivolous or vexatious;
if the information requested relates to
existing or anticipated legal proceedings and would not normally be disclosed
as part of those proceedings;
if providing access would be unlawful; and
if denying access is required or allowed by
law.
If we
are unable to give you access to the information you have requested, we will
give you written reasons for this decision when we respond to your request.
We
may charge you a reasonable fee for access to some types of information
requested by you. This charge will be limited to the cost of recouping our
costs for providing you with the information. Charges may include document
retrieval, photocopy, the costs of duplication of X-rays and models, and
delivery costs to you.
7. Correcting your personal information
To
enable us to provide you with the best service, it is important that the
information we hold about you is accurate and up-to-date. You will need to
provide us with any changes to your personal information (including change of
address, name, telephone number and health providers) to enable us to update
your records. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the information that
we hold about you is accurate and up-to-date.
8. Our contact information and resolving your concerns
You
can contact us during our office hours if you have any questions, concerns or a
complaint about this Privacy Policy or the way in which we collect, store and
disclose your personal information. We will always try to respond to you and
address your questions, concerns or complaints within a reasonable time.
This
Privacy Policy is available on our website at www.broomedentist.com.au. You can
also contact us and request that we send you a copy of this Policy by mail or
email.
Our
contact details are set out below:
Fran Rudeforth info@broomedentist.com.au
PO Box 1137
Broome WA 6725 0891923844