privacy policy

Current as of: 10-08-2019

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 Dr Coughlin 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 your:

  • 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 may collect your personal information in several different ways.

  1. When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration.

  2. During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information.

  3. We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email, telephone us, or make an online contact request.

  4. 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 Veterans’ 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

  • 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).

  • Providing information to the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (if you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer and haven’t opted out of participation in this registry).

Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party 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.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms.  Your electronic medical record is stored securely on servers in Australia. Some of your personal information from emails and faxes may be stored outside of Australia for a period of time with companies including Microsoft, Google G mail and Interfax. All of these companies store your data securely in compliance with HIPAA regulations.  All of our email correspondence is encrypted and HIPAA compliant. Our website contact form is sent securely with encryption. We do not store paper records or visual records such as X-Rays or scans.

Our practice stores all personal information securely.

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 (via email is sufficient) and our practice will respond within a reasonable time.

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 that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing to reception@geoffcoughlin.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 to reception@geoffcoughlin.com.au. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure.

You may also contact the OAIC. Generally, the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond before they will investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.

Privacy and our website

Our website includes options to contact Dr Coughlin’s practice, and, in some instances, requests information including email addresses and telephone numbers that are used for the purposes of contacting you with requested information including consultation bookings. The contact form is sent securely with encryption.

Google Analytics

The site uses Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. We use this information to help us understand traffic to the site and how users access content on our web pages.  By using our website, you consent to Google’s data processing as described in the Google privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy). You can opt out of Google Analytics by disabling cookies or by using Google’s opt out service. (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout).

Website Analyitics

Our website collects personal data to power our site analytics, including:

  • Information about your browser, network, and device

  • Web pages you visited prior to coming to this website

  • Your IP address

This information may also include details about your use of this website, including:

  • Clicks

  • Internal links

  • Pages visited

  • Scrolling

  • Searches

  • Timestamps

We share this information with our website analytics provider, to learn about site traffic and activity.

 

External content

In addition, our website includes links to other websites which have been created by other organisations. While Dr Coughlin judiciously selects linked material, users are advised to make their own decisions regarding the accuracy and currency of this linked information.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies, which are small files or pieces of text that download to a device when a visitor accesses a website or app. For information about viewing the cookies dropped on your device, visit About the cookies our website uses.

 

 

 

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur.