Privacy Policy

Providing quality osteopathic care is our principal concern and building a relationship of trust and confidentiality between practitioner and patient is paramount to our policy. Your Osteopath regards your information as confidential. This privacy policy is to inform you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within this practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

Why and when your consent is necessary

When you book online or attend your first and ongoing appointments as a patient at this practice, you provide consent for the Osteopathy practitioner(s) 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?

Family Osteopathy will need to collect your personal information to provide healthcare services to you. The primary reason 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

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 attend your first appointment, the Osteopath will collect your demographic, personal, and health information via our registration form. All your information is stored on a secure platform called Cliniko.
During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information. We may also collect information through Electronic Transfer for example radiography reports, gp or specialist letters/reports.
We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media.
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)

Who do we share your personal information with?

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 account keeping and billing purposes, including debt recovery
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)
Only people that 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.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

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 the practice in writing.

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms including paper and electronic health records.

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 and make this attention to the Practice Manager and our practice will respond to your request within a reasonable time. There may be a fee for this service.

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 the Practice Manager.

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 the attention of the Practice Manager. 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 336 002.

Policy review statement

This policy will be reviewed regularly and updated terms will be made available at reception.