At Home Occupational Therapy Services
Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
This privacy policy is to provide information to you, on how your personal information (including your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share your information with third parties. At Home Occupational Therapy Services will abide by Australian Privacy Principles outlined in the Privacy Act 1988.
Why and when your consent is necessary?
When you register as a client of our practice, you or your authorized representative will be asked to provide consent for your therapist(s) and practice staff to access and use your personal information. This is so they can provide you with the best possible service. 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 see additional consent from you to do this.
Why do we collect, use, hold and share your personal information?
At Home Occupational Therapy Services collects your personal information to provide therapy services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to assist you in achieving your therapy related goals. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, improving our services through practice audits or training provided by our service.
Types of information collected and held
The information we collect about you includes (but is not limited to):
Name, date of birth, address, contact details, next of kin
Health information including medical history, social history and information on how you manage day to day activities
Referral information from other agencies
NDIS participant number for purposes of identification, communicating with NDIA, and for billing purposes
Dealing with us anonymously
You have the right to work with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless its impracticable for us to do so, or unless we are required or authorized by law to only deal with identified individuals.
How information is collected and held
At Home Occupational Therapy Services may collect your personal information in several ways.
When you wish to make your first appointment. At Home Occupational Therapy Services will collect your personal and demographic information via a Referral Form. The Referral Form may be completed by yourself, a presentative or another service provider.
During the course of the providing therapy services, At Home Occupational Therapy Services will collect further personal information.
At Home Occupational Therapy Services may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS or telephone us. We collect data from our website using various technologies, including cookies. A cookie is a text file that our website send to your browser which is stored on your computer as a tag identifying your computer to us. You can set your browser to disable cookies. However, some parts of our website may not function properly (or at all) if cookies are disabled. Some of the information you may enter on our website may be transmitted securely via a secure medium known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
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 authorized representative
Other involved healthcare providers such as GPs, specialists, support coordinators, case managers and other allied health professionals
When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?
We may be required to share your personal information:
With third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as auditing agencies or information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with Australian Privacy Principles and this policy
With other healthcare providers and suppliers of assistive technology and home modifications
When it required or authorized by law (e.g. court subpoenas)
When it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a client’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or it is impractical to obtain the client’s consent
To establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
For the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process
Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in course of providing therapy services or as otherwise described in this policy, At Home Occupational Therapy Services will not share personal information with any third party without your consent. We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exception circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.
At Home Occupational Therapy Services will not share your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly 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 we store and protect your personal information
Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms such as electronic records, paper records and photos. At Home Occupational Therapy Services secures your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. We secure personally identifiable electronic information you provide on computer severs in a controlled, secure environment, protected from authorised access. Paper records are stored in secure cabinets.
Access to and correction of held information
You may request details of personal information that we hold about you, in certain circumstances set out in the Privacy Act 1988. We require this request in writing, either by email or hard copy and we will respond within 30 business days. An administration fee may be payable for the provision of information. We may refuse to provide you with information that we hold about you, in certain circumstances set out in the Privacy Act.
If you believe that any information, we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us by email. We rely in part, upon clients advising us when their personal information changes. We will respond to any request within a reasonable time. We will endeavour to promptly correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.
Breach of information
We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you have via email. At Home Occupational Therapy Services will make good faith efforts to rectify the issue and respond within a reasonable period after the complaint is made.
Policy changes
This Privacy Policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. At Home Occupational Therapy Services encourages you to periodically review this statement to be informed on how we protect your information.
Contact
If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact Stephanie Channon on 0431 034 332 or via email