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 necessaryWhen 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.
Note: The patient registration form includes a section for patients to provide consent.
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:
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:
We sometimes share your personal information:
Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms, e.g. paper records, as electronic records, as visual (X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos), as audio recordings.
Our practice stores all personal information securely e.g. electronic format in protected information systems (password protected and regularly backed up on digital drives) or in hard copy format in a secured environment. All doctors, nurses, administration staff, and other medical personnel (i.e. Allied Health specialists) abide by confidentiality agreements.
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 under signature and our practice will respond within 30 days. Some fees may apply to cover expenses such as printing, copying, postage, doctors time, etc.
Our practice will takes 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 addressed to Shop 12, Albany Creek Village, 700 Albany Creek Rd or via fax number 07 3264 4993.
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. You can contact Albany Creek Doctors at our address Shop 12, Albany Creek Village , 700 Albany Creek Rd or phone number 07 3554 3740. The turnaround response time as per our practice processes, is approximately 30 days.
You may also contact the OAIC. Generally the OAIC will require you to give Albany Creek Doctors time to respond before they will investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 336 002. Alternatively you can contact the office of the health ombudsman via phone on 133646 or Via PO Box PO Box 13281 George Street Brisbane Qld 4003; see http://www.oho.qld.gov.au/contact-us/ for more details.
Privacy and our websiteIf you log onto the website and read or download information, our Internet Service Provider/Hosting Provider will record your server address, domain name, the date and time of your visit to our website, the pages viewed and the information downloaded. This information is used for statistical and website development purposes only. We can determine the number of times that you have visited our website, the date of last visit, if you have updated your details/interests, and if you have clicked on the hyperlink contained on emails that have been sent to you. The information collected will be used to send you emails when content relevant to your areas of interest are added to the website. We record the email addresses of these recipients which may be used for our own marketing purposes.
Details received via our contact form will be stored on our private mail server until such a time as we do not require the forms. From the message we can determine your name and e-mail along with any contained data, which are kept in accordance with our practice policies as described above.
Details received via our newsletter sign-on form are stored on our private mail server until such a time as we do not require them. From the message we can determine your e-mail, which may be shared with third parties for the purpose of supporting the practice in the creation and distribution of relevant articles and communication. Third parties and programs used to store your personal data will selected or directed to abide by the terms of this privacy policy.
Policy review statementThis privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. Upon amending this policy, patients will be advised via notices displayed in the reception/waiting areas of our practice.