Privacy Policy

Mid North Coast Eye Clinic | Privacy Policy

27 February 2020

Mid North Coast Eye Clinic is an Ophthalmologic Eye Clinic and Eye Surgery based in Port Macquarie, Taree and Coffs Harbour.

Mid North Coast eye Clinic is committed to ensuring your personal information is professionally managed in accordance with all Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This privacy policy is to provide information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we share it with third parties.

What personal information we collect and why

When you register as a patient of our practice, your doctor and/or their support team will need to collect your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare services. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits, accreditation and normal business processes.

The personal information we collect and hold generally includes:

Your name, address, date of birth, contact details
Information about your health condition, medical history, social and family history, risk factors, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations and treatment you may have already received.
Medicare number or DVA number for identification and claiming purposes.
Private health fund details.

Only practice staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. All practice staff have signed a Confidentiality Agreement as part of their Employment Contract with us.

How we collect your personal information

Our practice will collect your personal information:

Directly and in person, over the phone, by email, SMS, social media, through our website or by completing our online or hard copy forms.

When you make your first appointment, our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration.

If it is not possible to collect it from you directly, we may also collect this information from:

Your guardian or responsible person.
Other involved healthcare providers such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services
Your Private Health Fund, Medicare or DVA.

With whom we share your personal information and when

Other healthcare providers
Third parties who work with our practice for business purposes (such as IT providers and accreditation agencies)
Statutory requirement to lawfully share certain personal information, such as mandatory notification of certain diseases
Court subpoenas required or authorised by law
When necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent
During the course of providing medical services through Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (eTP), or My Health Record system. NB: Specify other eHealth services your practice may participate in and any other disclosures specific to your practice

Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt-out of direct or online marketing at any time by notifying our practice in writing.

Only those people that need to access your personal information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice 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 exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

How we store and protect your personal information

Your personal information may be stored at our practice as paper records, electronic records, audio recordings, x-rays, CT scans, videos and photos.

Our practice stores all personal information securely, and has strict protocols and policies to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, interference or unauthorised access:

Electronic format is encrypted and password protected.

Hard copy records and information is stored in secure locked cabinets.

All staff and contractors must sign confidentiality agreements prior to commencing work with and for our practice.

How you can access and correct your personal information at our practice

Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. We will ask you at different times, to verify that your information held by our practice is correct and up to date.

You have the right to access and correct personal information that we hold about you, in electronic or hard copy format.

If you wish to access or correct your personal information, we request that you put it in writing and contact the Practice Manager (phone 1300 898 935 and email reception@midnorthcoasteyeclinic.com.au). Your request for access and/or correction will be processed within 30 days.

While we do not charge an application or processing fee, you may be charged administration, photocopying or other fees to reasonably cover our costs in fulfilling your request.

How you can lodge a privacy related complaint and how it will be handled at our practice

If you have any concerns about your privacy or wish to make a complaint about a privacy breach, contact our Practice Manager (phone 1300 898 935 and email reception@midnorthcoasteyeclinic.com.au). You should provide us with sufficient details regarding your complaint together with any supporting information. We will take steps to investigate the issue and will notify you in writing of the outcome within 30 days from the receipt date of the original written complaint.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact us directly to discuss your further concerns, or lodge a complaint with the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.

Privacy and our website

Cookies and Information collected - Deidentified:

Our website uses cookies. Cookies are used for personal settings, website functionality and targeted marketing. In your browser, you can delete cookies, or set the browser to request your permission to accept cookies. When you access our website, there is a record of your visit made in the web server logs of the following information for statistical purposes:

Your source IP address
Your domain or top-level domain name (for example practice.com, .gov, .au etc)
The date and time of your visit to the site
The pages you accessed and documents downloaded (if any)
The type of browser you are using

Your age, gender, and interests based on other websites you have visited. Google Analytics does not collect information about sensitive interests such as race, religion, sexual orientation, health, or financial status.

This non-identified information is used by us to monitor usage patterns on our sites in order to improve navigation and design features. We do not provide any of this information to third parties.

We also use Google Analytics to track website usage and more can be found about this product on the Google Analytics information pages. You can control the age, gender, and interests information, or opt-out of having this information collected through Google.

Agents and third-party software:

Mid North Coast Eye Clinic may use from time to time agents, social media and/or other cloud-based software to market and/or manage our business, for example, HubSpot, Oculo etc who may collect your details on our behalf. You may also refer to their relevant privacy policies for more information.

When a user completes an online web form for subscriptions or referrals or enquiries, such user consents to the processing of their personal data by Mid North Coast Eye Clinic and/or its agents in accordance with the purpose for which the data was provided.

How we use your information online:

Generally, we will only use your personal information:

To maintain your relationship as a patient of Mid North Coast Eye Clinic
To provide the services you have requested from Mid North Coast Eye Clinic
To administer and manage those services
To answer your online enquiry
For marketing of our services you have shown interest in and only with your explicit prior consent

Dealing with us anonymously

You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym, unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are requested or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. We will notify our patients of these changes via our website and our handout hard copy Privacy Policy available at our practice premises.

Phone: 1300 898 935

Email: reception@mnceyeclinic.com.au