Privacy Policy

Introduction

This privacy policy provides 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 may share it with third parties.

Why and when your consent is necessary

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our dental practitioners and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible dental care. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will generally seek additional consent from you to do this, unless obtaining your consent is not practical or reasonable, and an exception under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) applies.

Why do we collect, use, hold, and share your personal information?

Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide dental services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding, and sharing your personal information is to manage your dental health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).

What personal information do we collect?

The information we will collect about you includes your:

Name/s, date of birth, address/es, contact details (e.g. telephone, email), family contact information
Details of your oral health condition and the treatment/s and service/s you have received
Details of your general health (e.g. medications, allergies, medical conditions) and medical history that may impact the dental treatment you receive
Private health insurance information
Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
Information regarding other funding sources, where relevant (e.g. Child Dental Benefits Schedule, Department of Veterans’ Affairs)
Information on workers’ compensation, motor vehicle and other accident claims, where relevant
Healthcare identifiers, where relevant

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 required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.

Note: Due to the nature of dental treatment and record-keeping requirements, it is generally impracticable for our practice to provide dental services on an anonymous basis. However, you may make general enquiries anonymously.

How do we collect your personal information?

Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways:

During registration: When you make your first appointment, our practice staff will collect your personal information via your patient
registration form, which includes a collection statement and consent to collect personal information.
During treatment: During the course of providing dental services, we may collect further personal information relevant to your care.
Through communication: We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone
us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media.
From other sources: In some circumstances, personal information may also be collected from other sources when it is not practical or
reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:
- Your guardian or responsible person
- Other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists and diagnostic imaging services
- Your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary

When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?

We sometimes share your personal information:

With third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as information technology providers – these third parties are
required to comply with Australian Privacy Principles (APPs)
With other healthcare providers involved in your care
When it is required or authorised by law (e.g. court subpoenas)
When it is 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
To assist in locating a missing person
To establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
For the purpose of confidential dispute resolution processes
When there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (e.g. some diseases require mandatory notification)

Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing dental services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.

Overseas disclosure: We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia without your consent, except in exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law.

Direct marketing: 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 marketing at any time by notifying our practice in writing.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms, including:

Paper records
Electronic records
Visual records (X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos)
Audio recordings (where applicable

Security measures: Our practice stores all personal information securely through:

Password-protected electronic systems
Secure physical storage in locked cabinets
Confidentiality agreements for all staff and contractors
Regular security reviews and updates
Access controls limiting information access to authorised personnel only

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

You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.

Access requests: Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their dental records. We ask that you put this request in writing to matraville@haoeydental.pryorautomations.cloud or pottspoint@haeoydental.com.au

Fees: A $90 fee will be charged for administrative costs. and our practice wil respond within 30 days.

Corrections: Our practice wil take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we wil ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and to assist us with attending to your request we would prefer you to make such requests in writing to us.

How can you lodge a privacy-related complaint, and how will the complaint be handled at our practice?

We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing to Dr. Thomas Ha.

Our process: We will attempt to resolve your issue/s in accordance with our resolution procedure within 30 days of receiving your complaint.

External complaints: You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The OAIC may decide not to investigate your complaint if you have not raised it with the practice first. If you have lodged a complaint with us, and we have not responded within 30 days or you are dissatisfied with our response, you may then take your complaint to the OAIC. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.

Privacy and our website

When you visit our practice website or interact with us through digital channels, we may collect personal information through:

Website analytics and cookies
Online appointment booking systems
Email communications
Social media interaction

We ensure al digital collection of personal information complies with Australian Privacy Principles and this privacy policy

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, as well as the visitor's IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website

Cookies

If you leave a comment on your site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select "Remember Me", your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website

Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it remains current and complies with Australian privacy law. We will notify patients of any significant changes to this policy through our practice website and by displaying updated notices in our practice

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