Privacy policy
This privacy policy is to inform you on how personal information (inclusive of health information) is collected and used within our clinic and the circumstances which we may share it with third parties. Your personal information & health information is collected by Crystal Street Family Chiropractic to be used for the purpose of providing you a professional and responsible healthcare service. This practice adheres strictly to the National Privacy Principles Act 1988 and to the Health Records Privacy Act 2002 No 71, of the Commonwealth of Australia privacy legislation.
When you register as a patient at Crystal Street Family Chiropractic, you provide consent for our staff to access and use your personal information so we can provide you with the best possible healthcare. 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 seek additional consent from you to do this.
Crystal Street Family Chiropractic will need to collect your personal information to provide healthcare services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes.
The information we will collect about you includes your:
Names
Date of birth
Residential address
Contact details; phone and email
Medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
Healthcare identifiers
Health fund details
Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways:
When you make your first appointment Crystal Street Family Chiropractic will collect your personal and demographic information via the new patient intake form.
During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information.
We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, or make an online appointment.
In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is because 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, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services
Your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).
We sometimes share your personal information:
With third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies – these third parties are required to comply with APPs and this policy
With other healthcare providers
When it is required or authorised by law (eg 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 process
When there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (eg some diseases require mandatory notification) during the course of providing medical services, through eTP, My Health Record (eg via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary).
Only people who need to access your 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.
Crystal Street Family Chiropractic 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. Our practice may use your personal information to improve the quality of the services we offer to our patients through research and analysis of our patient data. We may provide de-identified data to other organisations to improve population health outcomes. The information is secure, patients cannot be identified and the information is stored within Australia. You can let our staff know if you do not want your information included.
Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms, such as electronic records, paper records, visual records (X-rays, CT scans, videos, photos). Our practice stores all personal information securely.
You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information. Crystal Street Family Chiropractic acknowledges patients may request access to their health records. We require you to put this request in writing and email it to crystalstreetchiro@gmail.com and Crystal Street Family Chiropractic will respond within 30 days. Crystal Street Family Chiropractic will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will 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.
We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure. You may either provide your concerns in a written email to crystalstreetchiro@gmail.com, in a written letter posted to 108 Crystal Street, Petersham NSW 2049, or contact us at +61 413 794 889. We will address and do our best to resolve your concerns within 30 days. You may also contact the OAIC. Generally, the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond before they will investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.
Crystal Street Family Chiropractic also gathers information via our website. Information is collected via submission forms, emails, and cookies. Cookies may collect some of your personal information and may collect de-identified information. If you do not wish cookies to collection your information your device and/or browser may allow you to "turn off" or disable them. However, cookies may be required for some features for the website to function properly. Your information may be collected through use of our website and is used for analytical purposes to help improve our website functionality.
This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it keeps in accordance with any changes that may occur. We will notify our patients with any changes to our privacy policy via email.