Our commitment to your privacy.
The Health Collab takes pride in delivering a professional, personalised, and friendly experience to each patient, client and employee. In doing so, we respect your privacy and are committed to complying with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act 1988. This Privacy Policy explains:
- What kind of information The Health Collab collects and holds about patients, clients and suppliers and prospective patients.
- How and why we collect it.
- What we do with that information and who we share it with (and when).
- Your right to seek access to, and if required correction of, the records we hold about you.
- Your right to make a privacy complaint, to us and others.
Your personal information will not be shared or disclosed to any party other than what is outlined in this Policy, nor will it be used for any other purpose than what it was originally intended.
What kind of information does The Health Collab collect?
The Health Collab collects a range of personal information about their patient, clients and prospective clientele that may include the following:
- Name, date of birth, mailing and street address, email address, contact numbers
- Information about your family or relatives or key contact people
- Health fund details
- Any government identifiers such as Medicare Number, DVA Number. However, we do not use thesefor the purposes of identifying you in our practice.
- Other health and information about the patient, clients, and prospective clientele, such as a record ofsymptoms, relevant medical history, the diagnosis made, and the treatment decisions made. Other information could include:
- Specialist report
- Test results
- Patient’s, Client’s, or prospective clientele prescriptions
- Individual healthcare identifier
- Other information for the purpose of providing care to the patient, client, and prospective clientele.
- Occupation and employer
- Lifestyle and hobbies
How does The Health Collab collect and hold personal information?
We will generally collect personal information about our patients, clients, and prospective clientele through the following methods:
- Directly from the patient, client, or prospective clientele when they give us their details (e.g., by completing the New Patient Form, face-to-face, over the phone or an online form, by entering a competition or leaving your information on a message system)
- From a person responsible for the patient, client to prospective clientele.
- Purchase over the counter or online products
- Enquiry or complaint
- Incoming call list; and
- Third party when The Health Collab is permitted by law to do that e.g.
- Third party government agencies (like the Department of Veteran Affairs and Medicare)
- Private health insurers
- Solicitors, lawyers, and worker’s compensation companies; and
- Medical professionals (such as general practitioners, allied health professionals, specialists etc).
Why does The Health Collab collect and use this information?
The Health Collab collects personal information that is necessary to provide the patient, client, or prospective clientele with the best possible health care to communicate with the patient, client or prospective clientele and others involved in their care in relation to those services and to maintain a high level of quality customer service. Examples include:
- Administrative purpose in running our clinics
- Billing purposes
- Accreditation and quality assurance activities to improve individual and community health care andpractice management
- Direct marketing purposes, mail, and email reminders
- For the purposes of research and statistical analysis (only de-identified information is used unlessotherwise specified)
- To comply with any legislative or regulatory requirements
- Sending communication to the patient, client or prospective clientele about our products and services
- Advise if a clinic will be closing, merging or relocating
- Contacting the patient, client, or prospective clientele in the event we have received a special order
- Update records and keeping the patient, client, or prospective clientele contact details current.
When and why might The Health Collab would share information about the patient, client, or prospective clientele with others?
The Health Collab may use personal information for the following purposes;
- To comply with our legal obligations (e.g., mandatory reporting under legislation, responding to a court order or subpoena)
- To consult with other health professionals involved in your healthcare, including health care providers outside The Health Collab.
- For use by a multidisciplinary treating team
- If you have a My Health Record, to upload and to download personal information about the patient,client or prospective clientele from it
- To get test results from diagnostic and pathology services
- To claim on insurance
- To communicate with the preferred health fund, with government and other regulatory bodies suchas Medicare
- To help The Health Collab manage our accounts and administrative services (e.g., billing or debtrecover, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts etc).
- Provide patient and clients with products and services, advise of upcoming promotions, specials, andsales
- Respond to enquiries and online orders
- To improve products and services
- Develop and improve The Health Collab website
- Direct marketing purposes, mail, and email reminders
- Remind the patient, client, or prospective clientele of upcoming appointments in the form of a phonecall, SMS or email
- Advise the patient, client or prospective clientele and prospective clientele of meetings
- To transfer the patient, client, or prospective clientele records on the sale of a clinic at which youhave been treated
- Respond to complaints and compliments the patient, client or prospective clientele have made
- To lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to a public health or safety
- To help in locate a missing person
- To establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim through the My Health Record
- To prepare the defence of anticipated or existing legal proceedings
- To discharge notification obligations to liability insurers.
The Health Collab does not sell, trade, or rent personal information to others. The Health Collab may share generic aggregated demographic information, or de-identified health records, not linked to any personal information, with trusted affiliates and advertisers for the purposes outlined above, or to use for research purposes.
Keeping the patient, client, or prospective clientele information safe.
The Health Collab takes appropriate security measures to keep your personal information protected, managed confidentially and securely, and destroyed appropriately when no longer required. The Health Collab will monitor and implement appropriate technical advances or management processes to safeguard personal information.
A confidentiality agreement is entered into by all employees, contractors, and agents at the time of their employment or engagement with us protecting the privacy of individuals. Where we outsource our services, we take reasonable steps in these circumstances to ensure that third parties have obligations under their contracts with The Health Collab to comply with all laws relating to the privacy (including security) and confidentiality of the patient, client, or prospective clientele personal information.
The Health Collab view unauthorised disclosure of the patient, client, or prospective clientele’s personal information as a serious breach of misconduct by our employees, contractors, and agents. If the disclosure of personal information is breached disciplinary or legal action will be taken.
The Health Collab endeavour to keep your information relevant, accurate, complete, and up to date. When you arrive for an appointment the receptionist at your clinic may request confirmation that your details have not changed. If the patient, client or prospective clientele requires personal information to be updated, please contact your clinic. If you think that the information, currently held about the patient, client or prospective clientele is not correct, let The Health Collab know in writing. The Health Collab will take reasonable steps to correct the patient, client or prospective clientele’s personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date.
Patients and clients can request to have copies of their personal information, clinical notes, images, and reports sent to them or a third party by contacting The Health Collab in writing. We will only disclose personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act. This means that personal information may be disclosed:
- For the purposes and uses for which The Health Collab have advised that we are collecting it, and for related purposes that the patient, client, or prospective clientele would reasonably expect
- Where The Health Collab have the consent by the patient, client, or prospective clientele to do so
- As required by law, or
- Under other circumstances were permitted under the Act.
The Health Collab do not propose to disclose your personal information to recipients located overseas. If we want to transfer your personal information overseas, we will first seek your consent, unless we are required by law to do the transfer.
The patient, client, or prospective clientele’s right to receive treatment from us anonymously (or by using a pseudonym)
Where is it lawful and practicable for The Health Collab to do so, the patient, client or prospective clientele can be treated anonymously or through use of a pseudonym (a name other than theirs).
If a patient, client, or prospective clientele has concerns about how The Health Collab have handled their privacy, let The Health Collab know by emailing privacy@thehealthcollab.com.au . The complaint will be investigated, and the patient, client or prospective clientele will receive a written response to the complaint within 30 days.
If the patient, client, or prospective clientele are not satisfied with the response, they may lodge a privacy complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney New South Wales 2001
Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/
