INTRODUCTION
Myhealth Medical Group Pty Ltd ACN 160 321 693 manages medical centres on behalf of the medical practitioners and other health service providers (Healthcare Practitioners) who operate their practice from them. We provide the administrative and non-medical services that those Healthcare Practitioners need to provide you with medical or other health services (Services).
Myhealth Medical Group Pty Ltd ACN 160 321 693 and its subsidiaries and related bodies corporate (“Our”, “Us” and “We”) are committed to protecting the privacy of personal information provided to Us and to handling your personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988
(Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles and relevant State and Territory privacy legislation (referred to as privacy legislation).
COLLECTION
We generally collect information that is necessary and relevant to enable Us to provide you with access to medical care, treatment, and to manage Our practice.
This information may include your name, address, date of birth, gender, health information, family history, credit card and direct debit details and contact details and any other information to assist Us in providing you access to Services.
This information may be stored by your treating Healthcare Practitioner and/or by Us at the medical centre where you are treated or electronically on Our central electronic database of medical records and/or in hand written medical records.
We may hold your personal information on Our central electronic database to allow each of Our clinics to access your personal information and provide you with appropriate medical care.
We collect information in various ways, such as over the phone or in writing, in person (including patient registration forms), through Our website or over the internet or email if you transact with Us online. We may also collect information via mobile applications.
This information may be collected by medical and non-medical staff.
Wherever practicable your treating Healthcare Practitioner and/or We will only collect information from you personally (or as relevant your guardian or legal representative). However, your treating Healthcare Practitioner or We may also need to collect personal information from other health providers, such as treating specialists, radiologists, pathologists, hospitals and other health care providers, to enable Us to provide you access to Services.
In emergency situations We may also need to collect information from your relatives or friends. We may be required by law to retain medical records for certain periods of time depending on your age at the time We provide services.
If a person applies for a position with Us, We may collect, that information from that person in order to consider their application.
USE AND DISCLOSURE
We will treat your personal information as strictly private and confidential. We will use and disclose your personal information for purposes directly related to your care and treatment, or in ways that you would reasonably expect that We may use it for your ongoing care and treatment or as otherwise required or permitted by law, including to provide medical services or to provide reminders to you.
We may use online platforms and mobile apps such as Medinet and Mypractice and platforms which provide e-scripts to provide online health care to our patients. Your personal information may be shared with these platforms if you or we use those platforms to provide services to you. If We use these platforms, they are subject to their privacy policies. Some of these platforms may use people who are located overseas.
We may contact you as part of your ongoing care, for example, in relation to appointments and patient check-ups.
We may disclose your blood test results to your specialist or disclose your personal information for the purpose of requesting x-rays.
Our Clinics utilise Best Practice Premier Medical Software. The referral templates generated automate the listing of your past medical history, medication and allergies. This information is editable and any sensitive information can be removed from the summary at your treating Healthcare Practitioner's discretion. The same is also true when including relevant results as part of any referral generated by your treating Healthcare Practitioner. Your treating Healthcare Practitioner can choose to include only the relevant results within your referral.
Currently our Clinics do not record, duplicate or store any audio/visual recordings of your medical consults. Should your treating Healthcare Practitioner wish to do so, they will first seek informed verbal consent from you before starting a recording. The purpose of the recording would be to assist your Healthcare Practitioner in effective preparation of your clinical records, and to assist our Clinics in the effective management of your clinical records. Your verbal consent will cover this use of the recording by your Healthcare Practitioner as well as the storage of the recording by our Clinics.
There are other circumstances where We may be permitted or required by law to use or disclose your personal information including for quality assurance, billing and management purposes. For example, We may disclose your personal information to Medicare, Police, insurers, solicitors, government regulatory bodies, tribunals, courts of law, hospitals, or debt collection agents.
We may also use your personal information for marketing (including direct marketing), planning, quality control and research purposes of the Myhealth Group, its contractors or service providers. We do not use sensitive information (such as health information) for marketing purposes without your prior written consent.
We may disclose de-identified data, including demographic data, to the relevant Primary Health Network.
We may use and disclosed de-identified, aggregated data for management, quality assurance, marketing and administrative purposes. We may also from time to time provide de-identified aggregated statistical data to third parties for research purposes.
We may have CCTV installed in the common areas at Our centres, such as the reception area. CCTV systems are only installed in areas of operation. CCTV cameras are never hidden. The recording of CCTV footage may be continuous or limited. We may collect, use and disclose your personal information in the CCTV footage for security purposes.
In some cases We may disclose your personal information to Our other medical centres in order to provide services to you.
We may disclose information about you to Our contractors to carry out activities on Our behalf, such as an IT service provider, administrative services, solicitor or debt collection agent. We impose security and confidentiality requirements on how they handle your personal information. Our contractors are required to retain your information confidential and not to use personal information about you for any purpose except for those activities We have asked them to perform.
Our medical centres may disclose your personal information and sensitive information to the Myhealth Group to allow all of Our medical centres to access this information and provide medical services to you.
REMAINING ANONYMOUS IN ACCESSING SERVICES
If you are accessing healthcare services through Us, staying completely anonymous may not be practical because we are required to maintain accurate records of the care and services you receive access to. While we may be able to accommodate the use of a pseudonym, be aware that choosing not to disclose your real identity could affect the quality of services you receive. If you would like to use a pseudonym that is confidentially linked to your real identity, please let us know so we can discuss how best to assist you in the management your care and treatment at Our facilities.
For other interactions, you are welcome to contact us anonymously or use a pseudonym. However, doing so may limit Our ability to effectively address your feedback or inquiries. We will inform you if collecting additional personal information is necessary to assist you further.
TEACHING AND RESEARCH
We may use de-identified information, sourced from your personal details, for enhancing internal educational activities and to oversee, refine, and improve the Services offered at Our practice. Your personal data might also be used to supply third- party entities, including academic institutions and governmental bodies, with a collective, de-identified health dataset pertaining to patient records. These third-party entities could leverage the de-identified datasets for their operational needs. If you desire to retract your permission for your personal details to be incorporated into a de- identified database, kindly reach out to us using the provided contact information, providing us with your full name, date of birth, and address.
Opting out will not impede your ability to access the Services In instances where research-focused third parties solicit identifiable information from Us, we will only provide such identified data if:
• The primary objective is for medical research purposes;- •we are satisfied privacy and confidentiality requirements (including any requirements under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)) have been satisfied; and
- •the research has been approved by a Human Research Ethics Committee, or you have expressly given your approval for the information to be accessed, used or disclosed for such research purposes.
DIRECT MARKETING
We may use the personal information we collect from you for marketing purposes, including e-newsletters, promotions and special offers. Our communications may be sent to you in various forms, including mail, SMS, and email in accordance with applicable laws. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.
If you have received marketing information from US and you wish to stop receiving it, you can contact us (either using the contact details below or the opt-out mechanism detailed in our marketing material) and ask us to stop sending the marketing information within a reasonable time after your request has been made.
We will not sell, distribute, or licence your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. However, we may occasionally use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties that we think you may find interesting, but only if you have previously agreed to this.
We acknowledge that information related to your healthcare can be particularly sensitive. We will not use your sensitive information for direct marketing purposes without your express consent.
DATA QUALITY AND SECURITY
We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, compete, up to date and relevant. For this purpose Our staff may ask you to confirm that your contact details are correct when you attend a consultation. We request that you let Us know if any of the information We hold about you is incorrect or out of date.
Personal information that We hold is protected from unauthorised access by:
• securing Our premises
• placing passwords and varying access levels on databases containing your personal information to limit access to authorised personnel on a need to know basis and protect electronic information from unauthorised interference, access, modification and disclosure.
• ensuring that Our service providers and contractors have in place appropriate privacy protection arrangements.
Our staff and service providers have been informed of the importance We place on protecting your privacy and their role and obligations in helping Us to do so.
Although We will endeavour to protect your personal information, We are unable to guarantee that any information you transmit to Us over the internet is 100% secure. Any information you transmit to Us over the internet is conducted at your own risk.
CORRECTIONS
If you believe that the personal information We have about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, you are entitled to seek the correction of your personal information by contacting Us in writing (see details below).
ACCESS
Subject to any legal restrictions, you are entitled to request access to your personal information We hold about you. We request that you send your request in writing to Us and We will respond to it within a reasonable time.
There may be a fee for the administrative costs of retrieving and providing you with copies of your medical records.
We may deny access to your medical records in certain circumstances permitted by law, for example, if disclosure may cause a serious threat to your health or safety. We will always tell you why access is denied and the options you have to respond to Our decision.
ACQUISITION OF ADDITIONAL MEDICAL CENTRES
When the Myhealth group acquires new medical centres, your personal information may be transferred to the new Myhealth Medical Centre. We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information that is transferred to Us by medical centres that join the Myhealth group. Any personal information that We collect from newly acquired medical centres will be managed in accordance with this privacy policy.
In Victoria, when We acquire new medical centres the medical centre will notify patients currently receiving treatment in writing that the medical centre will be sold. In addition there will be a notice placed at the medical centre and published in the local newspaper. The notice will state whether the medical centre will retain your medical records, transfer them to you, or transfer them to the new Myhealth Medical Centre. In response to such a notice you may request that your medical records be transferred to yourself or to the new Myhealth Medical Centre.
COOKIES
Our website uses cookies to provide a better browsing experience. If you prefer not to have cookies collected, you can disable this option in your browser settings.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS, API ETC.
We use products such as Google Analytics to analyse the audience statistics of Our website to improve Our content. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics.
We collect your personal information from Google application programming interfaces (APIs). We use Google APIs, namely Google Maps, in conjunction with Our QR codes to verify your address when filling out digital patient registration forms.
COMPLAINTS
If you have a complaint about the privacy of your personal information (including any breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or an applicable registered APP code), or you would like further information on Our privacy policy, or you need to correct your personal information, We request that you contact Us in writing at the following address:
Myhealth Medical Group
Att: Clinical Governance Officer
Suite 203/12 Help Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
Upon receipt of a complaint We will consider the details and attempt to resolve it in accordance with Our complaints handling procedures. If you are dissatisfied with Our handling of a complaint or the outcome you may make an application to the Australian Information Commissioner (see http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints) or the Privacy Commissioner in your State or Territory.
OVERSEAS DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may disclose your personal information to one of Our overseas service providers located in the Philippines and will require that service provider to retain that information as confidential information.
GENERAL
We may amend or replace this privacy policy from time to time in which case a copy of the amended privacy policy will be published on our website.
If an individual does not provide their personal information to Us, We may not be able to provide our services to them.