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Privacy Policy

Protea Healthcare Services Pty Ltd trading as Protea Occupational Therapy (Protea OT) is committed to ensuring Our clients’ personal and sensitive information is kept secure and handled in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles within the Privacy Act 1988, as well as the privacy and confidentiality guidelines from the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and Occupational Therapy Australia (OTA). This Privacy Policy sets out Our commitment to protecting the privacy of personal and sensitive information provided to Us, or otherwise collected by Us, offline or online, including through Our website, social media, phone calls, text messages, emails, telehealth, and face-to-face consultations.

In this Privacy Policy We, Us or Our means Protea Occupational Therapy, while You or Your means the client (including the parent/guardian and the child).

Personal and sensitive information we collect about you

The types of information We may collect about You includes Your name, gender, date of birth, marital status, contact details, address, invoicing/billing information, insurance and Medicare details, National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) information, emergency contact, next of kin, medical history, therapy goals, assessment and test results, family medical history, feedback about Our services, and other information that may be relevant for the purposes of providing healthcare services to You. We may also hold other information You’ve provided Us via surveys/feedback/social media interactions, and any other information requested by Us and/or provided by You or a third party.

Collection and use of personal and sensitive information

In order to provide you with high quality services, We collect, hold, use and disclose both personal and sensitive information. The information is collected:

  • Directly from you; and

  • Third parties such as Your class teachers, educators, counsellors, paediatricians, GPs, other treating health providers, and NDIS coordinators/Plan Managers.
     

You may choose to withhold information, however You are encouraged to provide any information that may be relevant to Your child’s therapy, as this may facilitate better clinical care.
 

Your information may be used for the following purposes:

  • provide You with healthcare services;

  • liaise with third parties for the purposes of providing You with healthcare services (refer to ‘Disclosure of information to third parties’);

  • fulfil Our clinical record keeping requirements;

  • billing, internal record keeping and administrative purposes;

  • performing education, training, quality assurance and other analytical activities to evaluate and improve Our services;

  • to contact and communicate with You;

  • where appropriate, to improve Our clinic by better understanding Our clients, market share and business opportunities, via analytics, market research and business development;

  • for advertising and marketing (You can unsubscribe from this);

  • to comply with Our legal obligations (including reporting and notification requirements);

  • deal any enquiries, complaints or disputes; and

  • other purposes with Your consent.
     

Sensitive information:

In order to undertake Our services, we collect health (clinical) information. We only collect, hold, use and disclose sensitive information for the following purposes:

· the primary purpose for which it is collected (to deliver healthcare services to You);

· secondary purposes that are directly related to the primary purpose for which it was collected, including disclosure to the below mentioned third parties as reasonably necessary to provide our services to you;

to contact emergency services, or to speak with your family, partner or support person where we reasonably believe there is a serious risk to the life, health or safety of you or another person and it is impracticable for us to obtain your consent; and

· if otherwise required or authorised by law.

Disclosure of information to third parties

Communicating and liaising with third parties is important for Us to facilitate coordination of care and allows Us to provide Our services to You in the safest, most effective and most comprehensive way. You are able to withdraw consent for Us to contact particular third parties at any time by communicating this via email to admin@proteaot.com. We may discuss with and disclose Your information, verbally or in writing, to:

  • Other health service providers who are or will be involved in Your care or development such as your paediatrician, GP, psychologists, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, other health professionals, counsellors, teachers/educators/schools and NDIS Coordinators/Plan Managers. This is to ensure multi-disciplinary care, alignment of goals, alignment of treatment, and ultimately to provide the best possible service to You.

  • Government agencies and authorities, where we are required to disclose/share information about You under a relevant contract or legal requirement (this includes the NDIS);

  • Our employees and contractors for purposes of delivering your care;

  • Courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities, or law enforcement, where We are permitted or required to do so, including for actual or prospective legal proceedings;

  • Insurers, lawyers and other experts or organisations for the purposes of dealing with enquiries, complaints, disputes, and legal proceedings;

  • Your lawyers, agent or insurance companies that have been authorised by You to obtain information from Us;

  • Your close relatives, close friends and personal representatives who are legally responsible for Your healthcare decisions (although We will not do this if You tell Us not to);

  • If required, external service providers and advisors who help us run our business, including software and IT.

    There may be situations where we need to disclose information about You/your child, such as in cases of a legal matter, court order, child protection matter, or under mandatory reporting requirements (for instance NDIS or AHPRA).

Information Technology

Your personal and sensitive information and clinical records are kept secure in an online practice management system called Cliniko. Cliniko is a company founded and headquartered in Australia. Data is stored in Australia. Cliniko meets or exceeds all regulations the Australian Privacy Principles, GDPR, PIPEDA and HIPAA. Information contained in the system includes clinical notes, letters, forms, reports (which relate to You and Your clinical care). Our therapists (employees and contractors) have access to the practice management system and are bound by strict professional confidentiality requirements. Administration staff also have access to the practice management system for the purposes of undertaking their administrative duties. In limited cases where paper records are used, they are either scanned into the practice management system, then destroyed, or kept secure in an onsite filing cabinet.

Email is also used as a modality for communicating with patients and sending reports/letters/forms. The Protea OT email account is password secured and not used for purposes other than official Protea OT business.

Through Your use of Our website, We may also collect information about your browser session, geo-location, device and network information, statistics on page views and sessions, acquisition sources, search queries, browsing behaviour. We may also collect information about your access and use of Our website, including through the use of internet cookies, your communications with our site, type of browser You are using, type of operating system and domain name of your internet service provider. We may collect these types of personal information directly from you or from third parties. Our website may contain links to other websites. We do not have any control over those websites and we are not responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting those websites. Those websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy.

While Protea OT strives to mitigate cyber threats, like other health service providers, unfortunately complete prevention of cyber security breaches and attacks can never be guaranteed. Furthermore, We cannot guarantee the security of any information that is transmitted to or by us over the internet. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at Your own risk. Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that the information we collect will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

Telehealth (Online Therapy)

In addition to in-clinic consultations and school/home visit consultations, Protea OT offers telehealth services. Protea OT is committed to upholding all principles outlined in this Privacy Policy, but telehealth does introduce additional risks. During telehealth consultations, We recommend parents/guardians stay near their children and in the event you wish to discuss something that is confidential/sensitive, it is recommended you call the therapist on the phone.
 

Requests for Access, Amendments and Withdrawal

You are able to request access to Your information, or request a correction/amendment by emailing Rebecca Birch at admin@proteaot.com. In some circumstances it may be appropriate and lawful for Us to deny this access, for example if We believe providing access would have unreasonable impact on the privacy of another individual, or if we reasonably believe that giving access would pose serious threat to the health or safely of any individual (or to public health and public safety), or if the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between Us and the client and the information would not be accessible by the process of legal discovery in those proceedings.

If You wish to amend/withdraw consent You have previously provided relating to privacy (where allowed by law), please email Rebecca Birch at admin@proteaot.com.
 

Privacy Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint relating to a breach of this Privacy Policy, please email Rebecca Birch at admin@proteaot.com to resolve the issue. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can also submit a complaint to the Occupational Therapy Australia (www.otaus.com.au), Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (www.ahpra.gov.au) or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au).
 

Amendments to Privacy Policy

We may, at any time and at our discretion, vary this Privacy Policy by publishing the amended Privacy Policy on our website. We recommend you check our website regularly to ensure you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.

For any questions or notices, please contact us at:

Email: admin@proteaot.com

Last update: March 2024

Privacy Policy adapted using template from LegalVision.com.au

This Privacy Policy (in whole or part) cannot be copied or replicated without the written consent of the Protea OT Directors.

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