Management of Your Personal Health Information
Your medical record is a confidential document. It is the policy of this practice to maintain security of personal health information at all times to ensure that this information is only available to authorised members of staff. We abide by the National Privacy Principles available at www.oaic.gov.au
What is Personal Health Information
Personal health information is any information concerning your health, medical history, past or future medical care and any information that identifies you as the patient. Your Doctor needs information about your past and present health in order to provide you with high quality care. This practice will make sure that you are able to discuss your health with your Doctor in private.
This practice follows the “Handbook for the Management of Health Information in Private Medical Practices” developed by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. This means that your personal health information is kept private and secure.
The practice has a written policy on personal health information – this policy is available to all patients for inspection.
Your Medical Records
Your doctor will do his/her best to make sure that your medical records:
• are accurate, comprehensive, well – organised and legible:
• are up to date:
• have enough information to allow another doctor to care for you;
• do not contain offensive or irrelevant comments about you;
• contain a summary of your care; and
• can be used to remind you, with your permission, to return for follow up, check ups and reviews.
Your doctor will only collect information which is relevant to your medical care. If you are uncertain, as to why information is being requested, ask your doctor.
Providing your information to other doctors
The Doctor(s) in this practice respect your right to decide how your personal health information is used or disclosed (for example to other doctors). In all but exceptional circumstances, personal information that identifies you will be sent to other people only with your consent. Gaining your consent is the guiding principle.
In this practice, it is customary for all Doctors to have access to all medical records on file. If you have any concerns about other Doctors at this practice being able to see your records, please discuss your concerns with your Doctor. It is important that other people involved in your care, such as other doctors, are informed of relevant parts of your medical history so they can best care for you. After discussion with you, your doctor will write a letter to the other doctor, which will either be posted or given to you to take to them. If you have any concerns about this discuss them with your doctor.
Providing your information to others
Your doctor will not disclose your personal health information to a third party unless:
• you have consented to the disclosure; or
• this disclosure is necessary because you are at risk of harm without treatment and you are unable to give consent for example you might be unconscious after an accident; or
• your doctor is legally obliged to disclose the information (eg notification of certain infectious diseases or suspected child abuse, or a subpoena or court order); or
• the information is necessary to obtain Medicare payments or other health insurance rebates; or
• There is an overriding public interest in the release of the information.
In any of the above cases only information which is necessary to achieve the objective will be provided.
There are times when disclosure is necessary for the Doctors in the practice to carry out a review of the practice for the purpose of improving the quality of care provided where the activity has been approved under the Commonwealth or State Legislation. These legislations provide safeguards to protect the confidentiality of all information used/provided.
Using health information for quality improvements and research
We use patient health information to assist in improving the quality of care we give to all our patients by reviewing the treatments used in the practice. Non-identifiable information may be used in research projects to improve health care in the community. You will be informed if your information I to be used for this purpose and will have the opportunity to refuse to have your unidentified information used in this way.
In some circumstance, where the research serves as important public interest, identifiable medical records can be used for medical research without your consent under guidelines issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council. This type of research must always be approved by an official ethics committee.
Security of information in the practice
We will ensure that any of your personal information that is put on our computer will be kept private in the same way as occurs with paper records. This will protect your records from unauthorized access.
Your access to your health information
You have access to the information contained in your medical record. You may ask your doctor about any aspect of your health care including information in your record. We believe that sharing information is important for good communication between you and your doctor and for good health care. Do not hesitate to ask your doctor if you want a summary of your care for any reason. If you request a summary or direct access to your full medical record your doctor will need to take out any information provided by others on a confidential basis. Your doctor will also need to consider the risk of any physical or mental harm to you or any other person which may result from disclosure of your health information.
Your doctor will be pleased to provide a full explanation of the health summary or medical record provided.
Resolving your concerns regarding the privacy of your health information
If you have any concerns regarding the privacy of your health information or regarding the accuracy of the information held by the practice, you should discuss these with your doctor. Inaccurate information will be corrected or your concerns noted in the records if it is not possible or desirable to alter the original record.
Further information on Privacy Legislation is available from:
Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner
1300 363 992
Office of the Health Services Commissioner (Victoria) 1800 136 066
Community and Health Services Complaints Office (ACT) 02 6205 2222
Office of the NSW Privacy Commissioner
02 9268 5588
Changing Your Address?
Please make sure that you let us know any update with address or telephone number so that we can contact you, should an emergency occur.
Your Rights:
If you have a problem we would like to hear from you about it. Please feel free to talk to your doctor, practice manager or receptionist. You may prefer to write to us or use our suggestion box. We take your concerns, suggestions and complaints seriously. However if you wish to take the matter further and feel that you need to discuss the matter outside of the surgery you may by contacting the following formal complaint body: AHPRA