PRIVACY POLICY

Introduction

The purpose of the Eastside Eye Specialist Care Privacy Policy is to outline how Eastside Eye Specialist Care complies with its confidentiality and privacy obligations. We are required, by law, to comply with the Federal Privacy Act 1988 which incorporates the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APP’s) as well as relevant state Acts relating to the handling and management of health records.

Eastside Eye Specialist Care has made this and other material available to patients to inform them of our policies on management of personal information. On request, each clinic will let patients know, generally, what sort of personal information we hold, for what purposes, and how we collect, hold and disclose that information.

Definitions

Personal Information:

‘Personal information’ is any information or an opinion about you where your identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained.

Health Information:

‘Health information’ is all identifying “personal information” collected to provide a health service.In the APP’s ‘Health information’ comes under the definition of ‘sensitive information’.

Consent:

‘Consent’ means ‘expressed consent or implied consent’. The four key elements of consent are:

The individual is adequately informed before giving consent;

The individual gives consent voluntarily;

The consent is current and specific; and

The individual has the capacity to understand and communicate their consent.

Note: willingly provided information is usually sufficient to imply consent to collection of information. Expressed consent ‘Express consent’ is given explicitly, either orally or in writing.

Implied consent

‘Implied consent’ arises where consent may reasonably be inferred in the circumstances from the conduct of the individual and EASTSIDE EYE SPECIALIST CARE.

 

Personal Information

Collection of personal information

Eastside Eye Specialist Care is a provider of health services and therefore, it is necessary for our staff and doctors to collect information from you that is required for us to provide services to you. Your health record can help us identify which course of action is likely to be safe and effective for you and may reduce the likelihood of repeating tests that you may have had in the past.

We will only ask you for information where we believe it is necessary for us to know that information in the course of providing our services. Further, we will only collect your health information where some specified requirements are met, including in particular:

with your consent; or

the collection is required, authorised or permitted by law or law enforcement purposes; or

the information is received through an appropriate disclosure by another organisation such as another health service provider with your consent; or

the collection is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to life, health or safety of an individual or the public.

 

How we obtain your information

Eastside Eye Specialist Care collects information which is:

Provided directly by you;

Provided on your behalf with your consent;

Received from a health service provider who refers you to a Eastside Eye Specialist Carepractitioner.

 

The kinds of information collected and held

 

Eastside Eye Specialist Care is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Outlook Eye may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

We may collect the following information:

  • Name
  • Contact information including email address
  • Demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
  • Other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers
  • What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

  • Internal record keeping.
  • We may use the information to improve our products and services.
  • We may periodically send promotional email about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
  • From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail.
  • We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.
  • We may provide your information to our third party partners for marketing or promotional purposes.
  • We will never sell your information.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to enable you to visit other websites of interest easily. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

  • If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us.
  • We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to Eastside Eye Specialist Care; Ground floor, 2 Millennium Boulevard, Carindale 4152.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

 

How Eastside Eye Specialist Care uses and discloses your information

As a provider of specialty services, Eastside Eye Specialist Care will usually send correspondence to your referring practitioner and/or nominated practitioner following any care or treatment received in one of our facilities.

This is in accordance with the generally accepted health industry practice and intended to inform your referrer of information that may be relevant to any ongoing care or treatment provided by them. If at any time your nominated or referring practitioners’ details have changed, please notify our staff so that your records can be updated. While every effort will be made to ensure the security of data transfer you should know that this information may be sent unencrypted.

If you do not wish us to provide your information to your referrer please advise one of our staff so we can make the necessary arrangements.

In addition, we use and disclose your health information for the following purposes:

to assist your treating team (doctors, nursing staff and other professionals) in providing health care to you;

to process private health fund, Medicare and/or DVA claims;

to provide necessary follow up treatment and ongoing care;

to provide you with standard reminders, for example appointments and follow-up care. These may be made by text message, email, letter or phone to the number or address which you have provided;

for our internal administrative requirements, including billing. This may include provision to external debt collection agencies for outstanding accounts;

accreditation activities;

to address liability indemnity arrangements with insurers, medical defence organisations and lawyers;

for the defence of anticipated or existing legal proceedings;

we may use de-identified patient information in our database or document review as part of the process of measuring outcomes and quality improvement. This may include images, results and/or data for use in research or presentations;

for a directly-related secondary purpose that would have been within the reasonable expectations of the patient.

 

When information can be disclosed without your consent

We will only disclose your health information to a third party with your consent, unless:

  1. the disclosure is directly related to the primary purpose for collection;
  2. in an emergency situation where release of information is necessary to aid medical treatment; or
  3. we are required by law to disclose the information (eg, reporting of communicable diseases).

How EASTSIDE EYE SPECIALIST CARE holds your personal information

Eastside Eye Specialist Caretakes all necessary and reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, up to date and secure.

We may store your health information in both hard copy and on computer. The storage, use and where necessary, transfer of personal health information will be undertaken in a secure manner that protects patient privacy. Hard copy information is kept under lock and key. Information stored on computer is password protected. We will keep your health record for a minimum of 7 years after your visit.

After that time, if the record is no longer necessary, it will be disposed of securely as required by law.
Some applications used by Eastside Eye Specialist Care store data using Cloud services.

Whilst all health information is stored on servers hosted within Australia, applications used to store personal information (such as the information collected through internet enquiries) are stored on servers hosted in the United States.

 

Updating your personal information

If at any time you believe that any of your personal information that we store is not accurate or is out of date, please let us know by contacting the Practice Manager at the clinic you attend. All clinic contact details can be found on our website:
https://www.eastsideeye.com.au/contact/

 

Contact Details 

You should feel free to discuss any concerns, questions or complaints about issues related to the privacy of personal information with your Doctor or the Complaints Manager of the clinic you attend.

Alternatively, if you have a complaint or query with respect to this Privacy Policy, please contact:

 

The EASTSIDE EYE SPECIALIST CARE Privacy Officer

Email: info@eastsideeye.com.au
Phone: (07) 3153 1000
Fax: (07) 3153 1001
Mail: PO Box 190, Carina, QLD, 4152

Ground floor, 2 Millennium Boulevard, Carindale 4152

 

 

All complaints are managed in accordance with the Eastside Eye Specialist CareFeedback Policy, a copy of which can be provided to you upon request.

Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) you can make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) about the handling of your personal information.

For details please visit:
http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints

We may modify this document at any time at our sole discretion.