Privacy and Confidentiality of Health Information

This privacy policy is intended to provide you, our valued patient, with detailed information on how we collect and use your personal information, including your health information, within our practice, as well as the circumstances under which we may share it with third parties.

Our practice collects your personal information for the purpose of providing best available and evidence-based healthcare services to you. The primary reasons for collecting, using, holding, and sharing your personal information include managing your health effectively and facilitating related business activities such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and staff training processes.

By registering as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our GPs and practice staff to access and use your personal information to deliver the best possible healthcare to you. Only the staff members who require access to your personal information will be authorized to do so. If we need to utilize your information for any other purposes, we will seek additional consent from you.

The information we collect about you includes:

Your full name, date of birth, addresses, and contact details, Medical information such as medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, social history, family history, and risk factors, etc, Your Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes, Healthcare identifiers, Health fund details (where available).

Our practice may collect your personal information through various means:

When you schedule your initial appointment, online or face-to-face, our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information during the registration process via relevant registration form.
Throughout the course of providing medical services, we may gather additional personal information, including through electronic transfer of prescriptions and the My Health Record system.
We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, communicate with us via email, SMS, telephone, social media, or make online appointments.
In certain circumstances, personal information may be collected from other sources if collecting it directly from you is impractical or unreasonable. This may include information obtained 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 services), as well as from your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as necessary.

We may share your personal information in the following situations:

With third parties who collaborate with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers. These third parties are obligated to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and our privacy policy.
With other healthcare providers involved in your care.
When required or authorized by law, such as in response to court subpoenas.
When necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to a patient’s life, health, or safety, or to public health or safety, and 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 confidential dispute resolution processes.
When there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information, such as mandatory notification for specific diseases.
During the provision of medical services and through electronic transfer of prescriptions and the My Health Record system.
Only individuals who need access to your information for the purpose of providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy will be able to do so. Outside of these circumstances, our practice will not share your personal information with any third party without your consent. Additionally, without your consent, we will not transfer your personal information to any party outside Australia, unless exceptional circumstances permitted by law arise.

Our practice will not use your personal information for direct marketing of our goods or services without your express consent. If you do provide consent but later decide to opt out of direct marketing, you can notify our practice in writing.

We may use your personal information, in de-identified form, to enhance the quality of the services we offer by conducting research and analysis of patient data. De-identified data may also be shared with other organizations to improve population health outcomes. These data sets are secure, do not identify individual patients, and are stored within Australia. If you prefer that your information, not be included in this process, please inform our reception staff.

Please note that your personal information is securely stored in electronic format at our practice. Where you fill out a hard copy of registration form, after entering your information into our medical software, we discard and shred the hard copy securely. We have measures in place to ensure the security of all personal information we hold.

You have the right to request access to and correction of your personal information. If you wish to access your medical records, you are required to submit a written request by post or email. Our practice will respond to your request within 30 days and a fee of $30 (subject to change without notice, check with our practice first, please), will be charged for providing access to your records.

Our practice takes reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. We may periodically request that you verify the accuracy and currency of your personal information. If you believe any of your information is incorrect or requires updating, please submit your request in writing to our Practice Manager via sending an email to manager@orig.med1clinic.com.au.

We always strive to provide the best quality medical services for our patients. If you have any concerns, please speak to our Practice Manager on (03) 9191 6454 or email them at manager@orig.med1clinic.com.au. Our practice will then make every effort to address and resolve your concerns in accordance with our resolution procedure. If we could not resolve your concern, you can contact the Health Complaints Commissioner on 1300 582 113.