Evergreen Hand Therapy (“us” or “we”) is committed to protecting the privacy of our patients while providing excellent services to you. This policy outlines how we manage your personal information and our obligations to you regarding this, as outlined in the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).
These Principles are available for review at The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website at www.aoic.gov.au.
What is “personal information”?
The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) defines “personal information” as information or an opinion about an identified individual or someone who is reasonably identifiable, regardless of its truth or form of recording (Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), s 6).
What information we collect
We collect your personal information in order to provide clinical services to you and may include (but is not limited to):
- Name, date of birth, addresses, contact details (such as email addresses and phone numbers)
- Private health fund details
- Health information including:
- Medical information (medical history, clinical information, medications, photographs and test results)
- Medicare number, DVA card number or other government agency number for claiming purposes
How we collect personal information
Personal information that is necessary to provide our services to you is collected in a variety of ways including face-to-face interactions, patient information forms, email, telephone, from referrals, from publicly available sources, or via our website www.evergreenhandtherapy.com.au.
In some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties (such as other health professionals including your usual GP) or funding bodies. In such cases we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.
Purpose of collecting personal information
We collect your personal information to deliver hand therapy services to you safely. We may also use your personal information for communicating with you regarding appointments and care, for administrative tasks such as billing or other purposes closely aligned with delivering hand therapy services. When we collect personal information we will, where appropriate and where possible, explain to you why we are collecting the information and what we will use it for.
What information we hold
Your personal information may be held by us in electronic records (in secure cloud-based software) or as paper records that are destroyed (shredded) after being scanned and uploaded as electronic records
What information we may disclose
Your personal information may be disclosed in a number of circumstances including the following:
- to other health professionals involved in your care (such as your GP, specialist or other allied health professionals)
- to other appropriate third parties including but not limited to your rehabilitation coordinator and insurance company representatives
- where we are required to do so by law
Security of personal information
We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information that we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. When your personal information is no longer needed for the purpose it was obtained (including when we are no longer required by law to keep records relating to you), we will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to destroy the information or ensure that the information is permanently de-identified.
Access to your personal information
You may access the personal information we hold about you and ask us to update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. If you wish to access your personal information, please contact us at [email protected] (by email).
We do not charge a fee to request access to your personal information, but we may charge reasonable administrative fees for providing a copy of it. We may require identification from you before releasing the requested information.
Keeping your personal information accurate
It is important to us that your personal information is up-to-date. We endeavour to ensure that all your personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If your personal information changes, or if you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide excellent services to you.
Policy updates
This Policy may change from time to time and is available on our website.
Links to third party websites
There are links on our website to third party websites whose privacy policies may be different to ours. We do not guarantee website links or privacy policies of these third party websites.
Privacy Policy Complaints and Enquiries
If you have any questions or complaints about our Privacy Policy please contact us at:
Evergreen Hand Therapy
Wellshare, 194 Varsity Parade, Varsity Lakes, QLD 4227
Ph: 1300 791 870