Privacy Policy

Current as of: AUGUST 2021

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. 

Why and when your consent is necessary 

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our audiologist 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, 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 until the time of your consultation. 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). After your consultation, any medical attachments including but not limited to referrals, audiograms and quotes, provided will be stored in our practice management database. 

What personal information do we collect? 

The information we will collect about you includes your:

· names, date of birth, addresses, contact details 

· medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, noise history, family history and risk factors 

· Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes 

· healthcare identifiers 

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 form or contact us form message. 

2. During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information. 

3. 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. 

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 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, 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:

· with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers or manufacturers for custom devices and plugs – 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 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 (eg some diseases require mandatory notification)

Only people who 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.

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.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms, such as electronic records, transcript consultations.  Our practice stores all personal information securely, confidentiality agreements with staff and contractors, use of password two factor identification software.

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 medical records. We require you to put this request in writing via our contact us form and our practice will respond within a reasonable time within 28 days. 

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 our director via our contact us page. 

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

We take complaints and 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. Attention complaints to Sandra at Honest Hearing, Email:honesthearinghealth@gmail.com, Phone: 0415 086 635. Please allow for a 28 day window from lodgement of your complaint to a response. 

Privacy and our website 

Our website uses GoDaddy Web Hosting services which use cookies. It is a technology on our websites and mobile applications that allow the potential tracking of your browsing behavior, such as links clicked, pages viewed, and items purchased. Specifically, the data collected relates to your interactions with our site features or third-party features, such as social media plugins, contained within the Services; Internet Protocol (IP) address (for example, to determine your language preference; browser type and settings; the date and time the Services were used; device type and settings; operating system used; application IDs, unique device identifiers; and error data). These technologies also automatically collect data to measure website performance and improve our systems, including metadata, log files, page load time, server response time to optimize DNS resolution, network routing and server configurations.

If you are not interested in the advantages of our Cookies, the ‘Help’ function of your browser can provide instructions on how to prevent Cookies or delete existing Cookies. Also, you can learn how to block all new Cookies on your browser and which configuration steps are required to receive a notification about new Cookies. 

Our websites also may use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics also uses Cookies, amongst others to help the website analyse how users use the site across multiple devices. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website will be transmitted to and stored by Google, including on servers in the United States. To learn more about Google Analyticsclick here. You can opt-out from being tracked by Google Analytics with effect for the future by downloading and installing Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Addon for your current web browser.

Policy review statement

Our privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. Changes to this policy will be updated on this website and be effective immediately upon publishing.