Privacy Policy
Herdsman Medical Centre
Privacy Policy
Current as of: January 2023. Reviewed regularly.
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 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:
- 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 will collect your personal information:
- When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration.
- During providing medical services, we may collect further personal information.
Information can be collected through Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (eTP), MyHealth Record/PCEHR system, eg via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary
- We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email, telephone us, SMS or make an online appointment, or communicate with us using social media. This information will be treated with the utmost privacy and respect.
- 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 Veteran’s 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 that need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than while 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 will be stored by Electronic Records.
Our practice stores all personal information securely. We use our practice software with internet protection and passwords and our staff and contractors are bound by Confidentiality Agreements to ensure security.
The Practice uses documented automation technologies particularly so relevant medical information is included in referral letters.
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 to the Practice Manager and our practice will respond within 30 days.
Where access is denied or needs to be limited due to concerns about your health and wellbeing or that of another person, this will be discussed with you.
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 your personal information held by our practice is correct and up to date. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing to practicemanager@herdsmanmedical.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. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure. Contact can be made by email (practicemanager@herdsmanmedical.com.au or in writing to 12 Pearson Place, Churchlands WA 6018, Phone 9383 7111. Your complaint will be dealt with within 30 days.
You may also contact the OAIC. Generally, the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond before they investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 336 002.
Our Website Privacy Policy
Your privacy is important to us. It is Herdsman Medical Centre’s policy to respect your privacy and comply with any applicable law and regulation regarding any personal information we may collect about you, including across our website, https://herdsmanmedical.com.au, and other sites we own and operate.
This policy is effective as of 31 Jan 2023 and was last updated on 31 Jan 2023.
Information We Collect
Information we collect includes both information you knowingly and actively provide us when using or participating in any of our services and promotions, and any information automatically sent by your devices in the course of accessing our products and services.
Log Data
When you visit our website, our servers may automatically log the standard data provided by your web browser. It may include your device’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, your browser type and version, the pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on each page, other details about your visit, and technical details that occur in conjunction with any errors you may encounter.
Please be aware that while this information may not be personally identifying by itself, it may be possible to combine it with other data to personally identify individual persons.
Personal Information
We may ask for personal information which may include one or more of the following:
- Name
- Phone/mobile number
Legitimate Reasons for Processing Your Personal Information
We only collect and use your personal information when we have a legitimate reason for doing so. In which instance, we only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary to provide our services to you.
Collection and Use of Information
We may collect personal information from you when you do any of the following on our website:
- Use a mobile device or web browser to access our content
- Contact us via email, social media, or on any similar technologies
- When you mention us on social media
We may collect, hold, use, and disclose information for the following purposes, and personal information will not be further processed in a manner that is incompatible with these purposes:
- to contact and communicate with you
- for internal record keeping and administrative purposes
Please be aware that we may combine information we collect about you with general information or research data we receive from other trusted sources.
Security of Your Personal Information
When we collect and process personal information, and while we retain this information, we will protect it within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss and theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification.
Although we will do our best to protect the personal information you provide to us, we advise that no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and no one can guarantee absolute data security. We will comply with laws applicable to us in respect of any data breach.
You are responsible for selecting any password and its overall security strength, ensuring the security of your own information within the bounds of our services.
How Long We Keep Your Personal Information
We keep your personal information only for as long as we need to. This time period may depend on what we are using your information for, in accordance with this privacy policy. If your personal information is no longer required, we will delete it or make it anonymous by removing all details that identify you.
However, if necessary, we may retain your personal information for our compliance with a legal, accounting, or reporting obligation or for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific, or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.
Children’s Privacy
We do not aim any of our products or services directly at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information about children under 13.
Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties
We may disclose personal information to:
- a parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of our company
- third party service providers for the purpose of enabling them to provide their services, for example, IT service providers, data storage, hosting and server providers, advertisers, or analytics platforms
- our employees, contractors, and/or related entities
- our existing or potential agents or business partners
- sponsors or promoters of any competition, sweepstakes, or promotion we run
- courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities, and law enforcement officers, as required by law, in connection with any actual or prospective legal proceedings, or in order to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights
- third parties, including agents or sub-contractors, who assist us in providing information, products, services, or direct marketing to you third parties to collect and process data
International Transfers of Personal Information
The personal information we collect is stored and/or processed where we or our partners, affiliates, and third-party providers maintain facilities. Please be aware that the locations to which we store, process, or transfer your personal information may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information. If we transfer your personal information to third parties in other countries: (i) we will perform those transfers in accordance with the requirements of applicable law; and (ii) we will protect the transferred personal information in accordance with this privacy policy.
Your Rights and Controlling Your Personal Information
You always retain the right to withhold personal information from us, with the understanding that your experience of our website may be affected. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights over your personal information. If you do provide us with personal information you understand that we will collect, hold, use and disclose it in accordance with this privacy policy. You retain the right to request details of any personal information we hold about you.
If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this privacy policy. If you are a third party providing personal information about somebody else, you represent and warrant that you have such person’s consent to provide the personal information to us.
If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time. We will provide you with the ability to unsubscribe from our email-database or opt out of communications. Please be aware we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity.
If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading, please contact us using the details provided in this privacy policy. We will take reasonable steps to correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or out of date.
If you believe that we have breached a relevant data protection law and wish to make a complaint, please contact us using the details below and provide us with full details of the alleged breach. We will promptly investigate your complaint and respond to you, in writing, setting out the outcome of our investigation and the steps we will take to deal with your complaint. You also have the right to contact a regulatory body or data protection authority in relation to your complaint.
Use of Cookies
We use “cookies” to collect information about you and your activity across our site. A cookie is a small piece of data that our website stores on your computer, and accesses each time you visit, so we can understand how you use our site. This helps us serve you content based on preferences you have specified.
Limits of Our Policy
Our website may link to external sites that are not operated by us. Please be aware that we have no control over the content and policies of those sites, and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices.
Changes to This Policy
At our discretion, we may change our privacy policy to reflect updates to our business processes, current acceptable practices, or legislative or regulatory changes. If we decide to change this privacy policy, we will post the changes here at the same link by which you are accessing this privacy policy.
If required by law, we will get your permission or give you the opportunity to opt in to or opt out of, as applicable, any new uses of your personal information.
Contact Us
For any questions or concerns regarding your privacy, you may contact us using the following details:
Herdsman Medical Centre
reception@herdsmanmedical.com.au
Herdsman Medical Centre
Social Media Policy
Current as of: January 2023
Name of social media officer: Karen Styles
Introduction
This policy provides guidance for members of the practice on using social media internally and externally. The policy helps identify and mitigate risks associated with social media use.
Definition
For the purposes of this policy, ‘social media’ is online social networks used to disseminate information through online interaction.
Purpose
Regardless of whether social media is used for business-related activity or for personal reasons, the following policy requirements apply to all GPs and practice staff of the practice. GPs and practice staff are legally responsible for their online activities, and if found to be in breach of this policy the breach will be discussed with the staff. If serious staff could be terminated of their employment.
Use of practice social media accounts
The practice has a social media officer responsible for managing and monitoring the practice’s social media accounts. All posts on the practice’s social media website must be approved by the social media officer/practice manager. The practice reserves the right to remove any content at its own discretion.
Monitoring social media sites
The practice’s social media channels are part of our customer service and should be monitored and dealt with regularly.
Breach of policy
All social media activities must be in line with this policy.
Policy review statement
This policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is up to date with changes in social media or relevant legislation. Staff will be notified by internal messaging.