Current as of: AUGUST 2021
Introduction
This privacy policy is intended to inform you, our patient, about how your personal information, including your health information, is collected and utilized within our practice, and the circumstances under which we may share this information 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, enabling them to deliver the best possible healthcare. Access to your personal information is restricted to only those staff members who need it. Should we require your information for any purposes beyond your care, we will seek additional consent from you.
Why do we collect, use, hold, and share your personal information?
Our practice collects your personal information to deliver healthcare services to you effectively. The primary aim of collecting, using, holding, and sharing your personal information is to manage your health until your consultation appointment. We also utilize this information for related business purposes, including financial claims and payments, practice audits, accreditation processes, and business functions like staff training. After your consultation, any medical attachments, such as referrals, audiograms, and quotes, will be securely stored in our practice management database.
What personal information do we collect?
We collect various personal information from you, which includes:
· Names, date of birth, addresses, and contact details
· Medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunizations, social history, noise history, family history, and risk factors
· Medicare number (if available) for identification and claims processing
· Healthcare identifiers
Dealing with us anonymously
You have the right to engage with us anonymously or under a pseudonym, unless it is impractical for us to do so or if we are legally required to only deal with identified individuals.
How do we collect your personal information?
Our practice may gather your personal information in several ways:
1. When scheduling your first appointment, our practice staff collects your personal and demographic information via your registration form or contact us form message.
2. During the provision of medical services, we may gather additional personal information.
3. We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, call us, make an online appointment, or interact with us on social media.
4. In certain situations, we may obtain personal information from other sources. This often occurs when it’s impractical or unreasonable to collect it directly from you, such as from:
· Your guardian or responsible person
· Other healthcare providers involved in your care, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services, and pathology and diagnostic imaging providers
· Your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as needed).
When, why, and with whom do we share your personal information?
We may share your personal information with:
· Third parties that collaborate with our practice for business needs, such as accreditation agencies or IT providers – these third parties must comply with APPs and this privacy policy
· Other healthcare professionals
· As required or authorized by law (e.g., court subpoenas)
· To mitigate or prevent a serious threat to health or safety or public health, or when it's impractical to obtain your consent
· To assist in locating a missing person
· To establish or defend an equitable claim
· For confidential dispute resolution processes
· When there is a statutory mandate to share specific personal information (e.g., certain diseases requiring mandatory reporting)
Access to your information will be limited to only those who require it. Aside from providing medical services or as outlined 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 any entities outside Australia (unless exceptional circumstances permitted by law) without your consent.
Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing our goods or services without your explicit consent. Should you provide 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 enhance the quality of services we provide to our patients through research and analysis of patient data.
How do we store and protect your personal information?
Your personal information may be stored in various formats at our practice, such as electronic records and transcripts. We ensure that all personal information is securely stored, maintained with confidentiality agreements with staff and contractors, and protected through password and 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 that patients may request access to their medical records. We require these requests to be submitted in writing via our contact us form and will respond within a reasonable timeframe, typically within 28 days.
Our practice will take suitable steps to correct your personal information when it is inaccurate or outdated. Periodically, we will ask you to confirm that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request updates to your information 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 privacy-related complaints seriously. You should submit any concerns regarding privacy in writing, and we will strive to resolve them following our established resolution procedures. Direct complaints to Sandra at Honest Hearing, Email: honesthearinghealth@gmail.com, Phone: 0415 086 635. Please allow a 28-day window for a response after lodging your complaint.
Privacy and our website
Our website employs GoDaddy Web Hosting services that utilize cookies, a technology that facilitates the tracking of your browsing behavior, such as links clicked, pages viewed, and items purchased. Data collected pertains to your interactions with our site features or third-party features, including social media plugins, IP address (to determine your language preference), browser type and settings, usage date and time, device type and settings, operating system, application IDs, unique device identifiers, and error data. These technologies autonomously collect data to evaluate website performance and enhance our systems, such as metadata, log files, page load time, and server response time, optimizing DNS resolution and network configuration.
If you’re not interested in the benefits offered by our Cookies, the ‘Help’ function of your browser can provide guidance on disabling or deleting existing Cookies. You can also learn how to block new Cookies and the configuration steps needed to receive notifications about new Cookies.
Additionally, our website may leverage Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics also uses cookies to help assess how users engage with the website across multiple devices. The information generated by the cookie regarding your website usage will be sent to and stored by Google, including on servers located in the United States. To learn more about Google Analytics, click here. You can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics in the future by downloading and installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on for your current web browser.
Policy review statement
Our privacy policy is reviewed regularly to ensure compliance with any changes that may arise. Updates to this policy will be posted on this website and will take effect immediately upon publication.