Privacy Policy

Current as of: 11/06/2023

Introduction

Athena Women’s Clinic is 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 (C’th) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

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 GPs 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. 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
medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
Medicare 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. Wherever practicable we will only collect information from you personally.

When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration.
During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information. This information may be collected through electronic transfer of prescriptions (eTP), or the My Health Record services (eg. Shared Health Summary, Event Summary).
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.
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 – 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)
during the course of providing medical services, through eTP, My Health Record (eg via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary).

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.

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.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms. This may include as paper records, electronic records, and visual records (eg. X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos). Majority of our records including pathology and radiology results are stored in secure remote servers.

Our practice stores all personal information securely. Personal information that we hold is protected by:

securing our premises;
placing passwords and varying access levels on databases to limit access and protect electronic information from unauthorized interference, access, modification and disclosure; and
providing locked cabinets.

Secure transfer of health information

Our IT procedures allow us to securely transfer health information. Patient records are securely stored in Practice Management software, and then encrypted in transit to third parties. Patient consent is required before transfer. Further information about transfer of health information can be found in the above section – “When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?”.

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. We will respond to this request within 14 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 reception@athenawomensclinic.com.au

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, to:

Athena Women’s Clinic

Email: reception@athenawomensclinic.com.au

Mailing address: PO Box 212, Bentley 6982

Phone: 6116 1285

We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure, and you will be contacted within 30 days of a complaint being received.

You may also contact the OAIC. Generally, the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond before they will investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.

Privacy and our website

We may collect personal information about you when you use and access our website.

While we do not use browsing information to identify you personally, we may record certain information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit and the internet protocol address assigned to your computer.

We may also use ‘cookies’ or other similar tracking technologies on our website that help us track your website usage and remember your preferences. Cookies are small files that store information on your computer, TV, mobile phone or other device. They enable the entity that put the cookie on your device to recognise you across different websites, services, devices and/or browsing sessions. You can disable cookies through your internet browser but our websites may not work as intended for you if you do so.

We may also use cookies to enable us to collect data that may include personal information. We will handle any personal information collected by cookies in the same way that we handle all other personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Our websites may contain links to external websites. Those websites are not subject to this privacy policy. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any other website and have no knowledge of whether cookies or other tracking devices are used on those sites. You will need to contact those websites directly to ascertain their privacy standards, policies and procedures.

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed annually to ensure it is in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (C’th) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and with any clinic changes that may occur. Patients will be notified via our website when the policy has been amended.

Last reviewed: 11/06/2023

We are a private-billing practice. Read more here. 08 6116 1285