Privacy Policy

Our commitment to your privacy:

Melbourne Paediatric Physiotherapy is committed to handling personal information about you, including health information about you, in accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.

In this Policy, we explain:

• What kind of information we collect and hold about you
• How and why we collect it
• What we do with that information and who we share it with (and when)
• Your right to seek access to, and if required correction of, the records we hold about you
• Your right to make a privacy complaint, to us and others

What kind of personal information do we collect about you?

We collect and hold the following kind of information about you: 

• Your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
• Information about your carer, family or relatives
• Information about other health professionals involved in your care
• Any government identifiers such as Medicare number, NDIS number. However,
  we do not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
• Other health information about you such as: a record of your symptoms, your relevant medical history, the diagnosis made and the treatment we give you:
• Specialist reports
• Test results
• Your appointment and billing details
• Your prescriptions
• Your healthcare identifier
• Your health fund details
• Other information about you collected for the purposes of providing care to you

How do we collect and hold your personal information? 

We will generally collect personal information about you in these ways:

• Directly from you when you give us your details (eg, face-to-face, over the phone, via registration form, an online form or via mail)
• From a person responsible for you (eg, parent, carer or family member)
• From a third party where we are permitted by law to do that (eg. other health care professionals involved in your care, from your health insurer, from the My Health Record system etc.).
• With permission, video and audio information for assessment or intervention purposes is also taken.

Privacy law requires a health service provider to keep records for 7 years or, in the case of a child, until the child turns 25. 

Why do we collect and use information about you?

We primarily collect and use personal information about you to provide our physiotherapy services to you and to communicate with you and others involved in your care in relation to those services.

We also sometimes use that information for other purposes, including:

• To help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our IT systems and
• To conduct accreditation, quality assurance or internal audits.

When and why might we share information about you with others?

We may disclose information about you to others outside of our practice as permitted or required under law. This will include situations where we disclose information about you in order:

• To comply with our legal obligations (eg. mandatory reporting under legislation,
  responding to a court order or subpoena)
• To consult with other health professionals involved in your healthcare
• To get test results from diagnostic and pathology services
• To claim on insurance
• To communicate with your health fund, with government and other regulatory
  bodies such as Medicare
• To help us manage our accounts and administrative services eg. billing or debt recovery (including, but not limited to debt collectors and lawyers), arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts etc.)
• To lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or safety
• To help in locating a missing person
• To establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim through the My Health Record
• To prepare the defence of anticipated or existing legal proceedings
• To discharge notification obligations to liability insurers

Your right to seek access to and to seek correction of the information we hold about you:

You have the right to seek access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you. We will normally respond to your request within 30 days. To make the request, you should contact the Director, Lauren Thompson Glennen, in writing. 

If you think that the information we hold about you is not correct, let us know in writing. We will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up-to-date. From time to time, we may also ask you to verify that the information we hold about you is correct and current. Please notify us if and when your contact details change. 

Security: how we hold your personal information:

We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold about you. These are designed to prevent unauthorised access, modification or disclosure and to prevent misuse and loss.
This includes:

• All files are confidential with access limited to therapists
• Melbourne Paediatric Physiotherapy staff have been instructed on the principles of the Privacy Legislation and are committed to protecting privacy rights  
• Holding physical files in a lockable cabinet
• Electronic information is encrypted and stored in Cliniko which stores and processes your data in Australia. Access requires two factor authentication. Cliniko is compliant with important privacy legislation, such as the Australian Privacy Principles and  General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Strong password protections when accessing the information on a computer

Data Breaches:

As part of information security responsibilities:

• We will take reasonable steps to reduce the likelihood of a data breach occurring including storing personal information securely and accessible only by relevant workers
• If we know or suspect your personal information has been accessed by unauthorised parties, and we think this could cause you harm, we will take reasonable steps to reduce the chance of harm and advise you of the breach, and if necessary the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Your right to receive treatment from us anonymously (or by using a pseudonym):

Where it is lawful and practicable for us to do so, you can be treated anonymously or through use of a pseudonym (a name other than yours). Clients wishing to be anonymous or use a pseudonym will be ineligible to receive funding via Medicare, DVA, TAC, WorkCover, NDIS and Private Health insurance.

Disclosing information about you overseas:

We do not propose to disclose information about you to anyone overseas. If we want to transfer your personal information overseas, we will first seek your consent, unless we are required by law to do the transfer.

If you have a privacy-related concern about us:

If you have concerns about the way we’ve handled your privacy, let us know. You should do that in writing. We will then try to respond to you within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the
Australian Information Commission, whose contact details are:

Phone: 1300 363 992
Email:  enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Post:  GPO Box 5218 Sydney New South Wales 2001

Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/

Updating this policy:

We will update this policy from time to time, to reflect any changes in our information-handling practices or the law or both. We will notify you of changes to the policy by updating this on our website. This policy was last updated 14/03/2024. 

How to contact us:

To contact us about any privacy related issues, please approach: 

Lauren Thompson Glennen

Melbourne Paediatric Physiotherapy 

admin@melbournepaediatricphysio.com.au

74 Faraday St, Carlton, 3053.