Kids Health Space Patient Privacy Policy
1.POLICY:
All patient information is private, and confidentiality of patient information must always be maintained. The rights of every patient are to be respected.
Kids Health Space must comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP’s) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and other relevant legislation.
By attending this specialist centre, you consent to your personal information being collected, stored and used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
2.POLICY REVIEW:
This policy is reviewed on an annual basis, or more frequent in response to changes in legal and professional guidelines when applicable.
3.SCOPE:
This policy applies to all employees and patients of Kids Health Space.
4.PRACTICE PROCEDURE:
The practice will:
- Provide a copy of this policy upon request
- Ensure staff comply with the APP and deal appropriately with inquiries or concerns
- Take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to implement practices, procedures and systems to ensure compliance with the APP and deal with inquiries or complaints
- Collect personal information for the primary purpose of managing a patient’s healthcare and for financial claims and payments
Staff Responsibility:
The practice staff will take reasonable steps to ensure patients understand
- What information has been and is being collected
- Why the information is being collected and whether this is due to a legal requirement
- How the information will be used or disclosed
- Why and when their consent is necessary
- The Practice’s procedures for access and correction of information, and responding to complaints of information breaches, including by providing this policy
Patient Consent:
The practice will only interpret and apply a patient’s consent for the primary purpose for which it was provided. The Practice staff must seek additional consent from the patient if the personal information collected may be used for any other purpose.
5.COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE:
Kids health Space recognises that the information we collect is often of a highly sensitive nature and as an organisation we have adopted the privacy compliance standards relevant to Kids Health Space to ensure personal information is protected.
For administrative and billing purposes and to ensure quality and continuity of patient care a patient’s health information is shared between the consultants of Kids Health Space.
Collected personal information will include patient’s
- Names, addresses and contact details
- Medicare number for identification and claiming purposes
- Healthcare identifiers
- Medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors.
A patient’s personal information may be held at the practice in various forms
- As paper records
- As electronic records
- As visuals i.e. x-rays, CT scans, videos & photos
- As audio recordings
The practice’s procedures for collecting personal information is set out below:
- Practice staff collect patient’s personal and demographic information via registration when patients present to the clinic for the first time. Patients are encouraged to pay attention to the collection statement that they complete as a new patient.
- During the course of providing medical services the practice’s consultant will consequently collect further personal information.
- Personal information may also be collected from the patient’s guardian or responsible person (where practicable and necessary) or from other involved healthcare specialists.
The practice holds all personal information securely, whether in electronic format, in protected information systems or in hard copy in a secured environment.
Personal information collected by Kids Health Space may be used or disclosed in the following instances:
- For medical defence purposes;
- As required by law in instances of mandatory reporting of communicable diseases;
- Necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or it is impracticable to obtain patient’s consent
- To assist in locating a missing person
- For the purpose the patient was advised during consult with the treating Doctor;
- As required during the normal operation of services provided. i.e. for referral to a medical specialist or other health service provider;
- For the purpose of a confidential dispute resolution process
- Some disclosure may occur to third parties engaged by or for the practice for the Practice for business purposes such as accreditation or for the provision of information technology. These third parties are required to comply with this policy.
The practice will not disclose personal information to any third party other than in the course of providing medical services, without full disclosure to the patient or the recipient, the reason for the information transfer and full consent from the patient.
The Practice will not disclose personal information to anyone outside Australia without need and without patient consent.
The Practice will not use any personal information in relation to direct marketing to a patient without that patient’s express consent.
The practice evaluates all unsolicited information it receives to decide if it should be kept, acted upon or destroyed.
Kids Health Space will employ all reasonable endeavours to ensure that a patient’s personal information is not disclosed without their prior consent.
6.DATA QUALITY:
Patient information collected and retained in our records for the purpose of providing quality health care will be complete, accurate, and up to date at the time of collection. Doctors are reminded to review past medical history at least every 3 years.
7.DATA SECURITY:
Our patient records are maintained in a secure on-site Computer system. The information recorded is protected by an individual password system and is accessible only to the authorized personnel.
Retention of medical records is for a minimum of 7 years from the date of last entry into the patient record unless the patient is a child in which case the record must be kept until the patient attains the age of 25 years of age.
Paper based information is no longer required is destroyed by shredding.
8.PARENTS/GUARDIANS AND CHILDREN:
To protect the rights of a child’s privacy, access to a child’s medical information may at times be restricted for parents and guardians. Release of information may be referred to the treating Doctor where their professional judgement and the law will be applied.
9.COMPLAINTS:
The practice takes complaints and concerns about the privacy of patient’s personal information seriously. Patients are encouraged to express any privacy concerns in writing. The Practice will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with its complaint resolution process.
In the instance where you are dissatisfied with the level of service provided within the clinic, we encourage you to discuss any concerns relating to the privacy of your information with the Practice Manager or your Doctor.
10.PRIVACY ACT:
The Australian Privacy Principles (APP’s) from schedule 1 of the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 covers the private health sector throughout the Australia.
The Privacy Act requires our practice to abide by the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs):
Australian Privacy Principle 1—open and transparent management of personal information
Australian Privacy Principle 2—anonymity and pseudonymity
Australian Privacy Principle 3—collection of solicited personal information
Australian Privacy Principle 4—dealing with unsolicited personal information
Australian Privacy Principle 5 – notification of the collection of personal information
Australian Privacy Principle 6 – use or disclosure of personal information
Australian Privacy Principle 7 – direct marketing
Australian Privacy Principle 8 – cross-border disclosure or personal information
Australian Privacy Principle 9 – adoption, use or disclosure of government related Identifiers
Australian Privacy Principle – 10 quality of personal information
Australian Privacy Principle – 11 security of personal information
Australian Privacy Principle – 12 access to personal information
Australian Privacy Principle – 13 correction of personal information