Lister House Clinic & Natimuk Surgery PRIVACY POLICY

 

Lister House Clinic Privacy Policy

Lister House Clinic Privacy Policy Version 24.10 Updated July 2024 with review to held information in accordance with the Victorian Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act), Public Records Act 1973 (Vic), Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and other applicable legislation in Victoria as well as the Federal legislation of The Privacy Act 1988

Lister House Clinic Medical Practice Privacy Policy, Including Natimuk Surgery and any other LHC run medical clinics not mentioned here, but not limited to.

  1. Introduction

Our practice at Lister House Medical Clinic (LHC or LHMC) is committed to continue and improve our ‘best practice standards’ in relation to the management of information we collect.

This practice has developed a policy to protect patient privacy in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘the Privacy Act’) as well as the Victorian Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act), Public Records Act 1973 (Vic), Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and other applicable legislation..  Our policy is to inform you of:

  • the kinds of information that we collect and hold, which, as a medical practice, is likely to be ‘health information’ for the purposes of the Privacy Act;
  • how we collect and hold personal information;
  • the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information;
  • how you may access your personal information and seek the correction of that information;
  • how you may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with such a complaint;
  • whether we are likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients or 3rd parties;

 

  1. What kinds of personal information do we collect?

The type of information we may collect, and hold includes:

  • Your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
  • Medicare number, DVA number and other government identifiers, although we will not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice according to 3 identifiers.
  • Other health information about you, including:
    • notes of your symptoms or diagnosis and the treatment given to you, for you or by you
    • your specialist reports and test results
    • your appointment and billing details
    • your prescriptions and other pharmaceutical purchases (safe script)
    • your next of kin and emergency contact details
    • your genetic information, if applicable
    • your healthcare identifier (IHI) number
    • any other information about your race, sexuality or religion, when collected by a health service provider or medical personnel.
    • Your health status such as family history, smoking status, alcohol consumption, pregnancies, prior vaccines, and occupation. Including but not limited to prior surgeries, social and medical history
  1. How do we collect and hold personal information?

We will generally collect personal information:

  • from you directly when you provide your details to us. This might be via a face-to-face discussion, telephone conversation, registration form or online forms
  • from a person responsible for you or have your authority to act on your behalf
  • from third parties where the Privacy Act or other law allows it – this may include, but is not limited to:  other members of your treating team, diagnostic centres, specialists, hospitals, the My Health Record system[1], electronic prescription services, Medicare, your health insurer, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, safe script
  1. Why do we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information?

In general, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to provide health services to you
  • to communicate with you in relation to the health service being provided to you
  • Direct marketing may occur with your consent, and you can withdraw at any time. Implied consent may be inferred in the circumstances from the conduct of the individual or the practice. This will only be used for the purpose of preventative medicine and knowledge of relating conditions to your individual health circumstances. E.G. bone bus for bone health or heart health check-ups for 45–49-year-olds
  • Only approved 3rd parties may have or need access to assist LHC in generation of patient lists ,eg Zedmed, Cubico, Hotdoc- but all parties have related privacy policies and can be reviewed on request. There is no ongoing access to information other than one off generated report(s)
  • to comply with our legal obligations, including, but not limited to, mandatory notification of communicable diseases or mandatory reporting under applicable child protection legislation.
  • to help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our ITC systems
  • for consultations with other doctors and allied health professional involved in your healthcare;
  • to obtain, analyse and discuss test results from diagnostic and pathology laboratories
  •  for identification and insurance claiming
  •  If you have a My Health Record, to upload your personal information to, and download your personal information from, and access to the My Health Record system.
  • Information can also be disclosed through an electronic transfer of prescriptions service.
  • To liaise with your health fund, government and regulatory bodies such as Medicare, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (if you make a privacy complaint to the OAIC), as necessary.
  • For requested services from the patient directly- referrals, scripts, certificates and results may be emailed direct to the patient or 3rd party of the patient choosing. Giving us your email implies consent at the time of collection, as well as confirmation at request of the aforementioned, but not limited to, service delivery.
  1. How can you access and correct your personal information?

You have a right to seek access to, and correction of the personal information which we hold about you.

For details on how to access and correct your health record, please contact our practice as noted below under ‘Contact Details’:

We will normally respond to your request within 30 days.

  1. How do we hold your personal information?

All our staff have signed a confidentiality contract and are asked to adhere to our policies and procedures while employed at LHC and in perpetuity. Our staff are trained and required to respect and protect your privacy. We take reasonable steps to protect information held from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

This includes:

  • Holding your information on an onsite encrypted database in our server and clinical software
  • Holding your information in a lockable cabinet – as data protection we have backups rotated daily and held off site in secure locations to ensure continuity to business in case of the unlikely event of server disruption
  • Our staff and any visiting personnel all sign confidentiality agreements
  • Our practice has document retention and destruction policies

 

  1. Privacy related questions and complaints

If you have any questions about privacy-related issues or wish to complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or the handling of your personal information by us, you may lodge your complaint in writing to (see below for details).  We will normally respond to your request within 30 days.

If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the OAIC:

Phone: 1300 363 992

Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Fax: +61 2 9284 9666

Post: GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001

 

  1. Anonymity and pseudonyms

 

The Privacy Act provides that individuals must have the option of not identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym, when dealing with our practice, except in certain circumstances, such as where it is impracticable for us to deal with you if you have not identified yourself.

Lister house reserves the right to not undertake your medical care if you choose to not be identified and wish to remain anonymous or via a pseudonym.

All practical steps will be taken in ensuring your privacy and right to anonymity, but we expect original disclosure of self is important to continuity and required claims and service. This will be at the discretion of the participating medical practitioner.

  1. Overseas disclosure.

We may disclose your personal information to the following overseas recipients: (Note: Lister House clinic does not currently use any overseas recipients)

  • any practice or individual who assists us in providing services (such as where you have come from overseas and had your health record transferred from overseas or have treatment continuing from an overseas provider)
  • overseas transcription services (LHC currently does not use these services)
  • overseas based cloud (LHC currently does not use these services overseas)
  • anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it
  1. Updates to this Policy

This Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and other necessary developments. Updates will be publicised on the practice’s website.

 

  1. Privacy and websites

We have included this policy to our website

  1. Contact details for privacy related issues

For any privacy related issues please Phone 0353820011 or

email: practicemanager@listerhouseclinic.com.au

[1] See: https://myhealthrecord.gov.au/internet/mhr/publishing.nsf/content/home