At Trinity Specialist, we are committed to best practice for Privacy protection and confidentiality of your personal and health information. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
1. Collection of Personal Information:
We collect and process various types of personal information to provide you with the very best medical care, treatment and manage our medical practice. This may include, but is not limited to:
- Personal details including name, address, date of birth, gender.
- Contact information including address, phone number, email, next of kin.
- Medical history and health information including but not limited to symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, Specialist reports, test results, prescriptions and relevant family history.
- Medicare and health insurance information
- Financial information for billing purposes including credit card and direct debit details.
- Appointment details
- Your healthcare identifier
- Any other information about your race, sexuality or religion, when collected by a health service provider.
2. How We Collect Information:
We may collect information through various channels, including:
- Directly from you during consultations, examinations, or through forms. This may be via face-to-face discussion, telephone conversation, registration form or online form.
- From third parties where the Privacy Act or other law allows it – healthcare professionals involved in your care including but not limited to other treating specialist, radiologists, pathologists, hospitals and other health care providers, Medicare and your health insurer.
- In the case of an emergency, we may also need to collect information from your relatives and friends.
- Through electronic health records and medical devices
3. Use and disclosure of personal Information:
Your private and confidential information will be used or disclosed for purposes directly related to your care and treatment and enable us to appropriately manage and conduct our business for the following purposes:
- Providing healthcare services, diagnosis, and treatment including all treating doctors, pathology services, radiology services and other services outside of this practice.
- To obtain, analyse and discuss test results from diagnostic and pathology laboratories
- For identification and insurance claiming for billing and processing Medicare/DVA/Private insurance.
- Managing appointments, follow-ups, and referrals
- To help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our IT systems.
- Complying with legal and regulatory requirements including but not limited to mandatory reporting under applicable child protection legislation.
4. Data Security:
We implement reasonable security measures to protect your information from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Our staff is trained on privacy and security practices, and access to your information is restricted to those who need it for legitimate purposes.
5. Your Rights:
Subject to the exemptions set out in the Privacy Act, you have the right to seek access to and correction of the personal information which we hold about you in accordance to our access policy.
We ask that you put your request to access your medical and personal information in writing and our practice will respond within 30 days. There will be a fee involved in retrieving and providing you copies of your medical records.
We may deny access to your medical records in certain circumstances permitted by law. In those circumstances will be also disclose why access is denied and the options you have to respond to our decision.
If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the OAIC:
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint
6. Changes to the Privacy Policy:
From time to time we may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Any changes will be available on our website and our medical practice. The effective date will be revised accordingly. This Privacy Policy is current as at 1 January 2024.
7. Overseas disclosure:
We will not transfer your personal information to an overseas recipient unless we have your consent or we are required to do so by law.
8. Contact Information:
If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy or the handling of your information, please contact:
Attn: Senior Medical Administration officer
Address: PO Box 172, Broadmeadow NSW 2292
Phone: 02 4062 0841
Email: hello@trinityspecialist.com.au