Proact Health Privacy Policy
‍At Proact Health we are committed to protecting the privacy of patient information and to handling your personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, the Australian Privacy Principles and relevant State and Territory privacy legislation (referred to as privacy legislation).Proact Health is engaged by major employers to provide medical services to their employees. Although we have been engaged by your employer to make medical services available to you, we are not required to disclose any of your personal information to your employer. Furthermore, we will not disclose any of your personal information to your employer other than following a written request from you which specifies the information we are to provide. To ensure you are confident to entrust us with your personal information, this policy explains how we collect, use and disclose your personal information. It also explains how you may request your information or make a complaint about a breach of privacy legislation.You can contact us by email at privacy@proacthealth.com.au We are not required to have a data protection officer, so any enquiries about our use of your personal data should be addressed to the contact details above.
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This Privacy Policy is reviewed annually. From time to time we may make changes to our policy, processes and systems in relation to how we handle your personal information. We will update this policy to reflect any changes. This policy and any changes will be available on our website and in our clinics.

Proact Health will:
— provide a copy of this policy upon request·      
— ensure medical practitioners and support staff comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) and deal appropriately with enquiries or concerns
— take reasonable steps to implement practices, procedures, and systems to ensure compliance with the APP
— collect personal information for the primary purpose of managing a patient’s healthcare and any financial claims and payments.
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Proact Health will take reasonable steps to ensure patients understand:
— what information has been and is being collected
— why the information is being collected
— how the information will be used or disclosed
— why and when patient consent to the disclosure of certain information is necessary
— Proact Health’s procedures for access to and correction of information.

‍Collection of Information
‍We collect information that is necessary and relevant to provide you with medical care and treatment, and to manage our medical practice. Information collected will include:
— Names, address, date of birth and contact details
— Medicare number, Private Health provider details
— medical information including medical history, gender, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
— credit card and direct debit information in the event that you request treatment or tests the costs of which are not wholly met by your employer or Medicare.
— correspondence from other healthcare providers such as specialists, radiologists, pathologists, hospitals and the My Health Record system.

We collect information in various ways:
1.       From you directly with the demographic information you provide via registration for the first and subsequent visits.
2.       During the course of providing medical services, when the health practitioners will collect and record personal information.
3.       Through our web site, email or video conferencing if you transact with us online or engage in telehealth.
4.       Where necessary or in emergency situations personal information may also be collected from a guardian, next of kin, responsible person or healthcare specialists.

This information is collected by medical and non-medical staff.Your personal information may be held in various forms including:
— electronic records
— visual records (x-rays, CT scans, videos, photographs).

The Practice holds all personal information securely, whether in electronic format in protected information systems, or in hard copy format in a secured environment.

‍Use and Disclosure of Information
‍We will treat your personal information as strictly private and confidential. We will only use or disclose it for purposes directly related to your care and treatment or in ways that you would reasonably expect that we may use it for your ongoing care and treatment. For example, the disclosure of blood test results to other medical practitioners who are treating you.

We will attempt to inform you where there is a statutory requirement to disclose certain information (for example some diseases and events require mandatory notification).There are circumstances where we may be permitted or required by law to disclose your personal information to third parties. For example, to Medicare, Police (for example, where necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety, or public health or safety), insurers, solicitors, government regulatory bodies, tribunals, courts of law, hospitals, debt collection, the electronic transfer of prescriptions service or to the My Health Record system. We may disclose information about you to outside contractors to carry out activities on our behalf, such as an IT service provider, but all cases we impose security and confidentiality requirements on how they handle your personal information. Outside contractors are required not to use information about you for any purpose other than those activities we have asked them to perform. Proact will not use any personal information in relation to direct marketing to a patient without that patient’s consent. Patients may opt out of direct marketing or emails at any time, either by using the digital “unsubscribe” option or by contacting Proact directly.

‍Data Quality and Security
‍We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, up to date and relevant. For this purpose our staff may ask you to confirm that your contact details are correct when you attend a consultation. Being able to contact you is necessary to ensure we can deliver care to you. We request that you let us know if any of the information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date. Personal information we hold is protected by placing passwords and varying access levels on data bases to limit access and protect electronic information from unauthorized interference, access, modification and disclosureWhere it is necessary to conduct a telehealth consultation from our doctors’ private premises they will take reasonable steps to maintain a private and secure environment to conduct such consultations.

‍Corrections
‍If you believe the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, we ask that you contact us in writing.

Access
‍Proact acknowledges that patients may request access to their medical records. Patients are encouraged to make this request in writing and we will respond within a reasonable time.You may request to have your records transferred to another medical practice. Any such request should be in writing and include your name, date of birth and address, and the name and address of the receiving medical practitioner or practice, as well as the preferred format to receive information.

‍Complaints
‍Proact takes complaints and concerns seriously. If you have a concern about the privacy of your personal information (including concerns about our use of the My Health Record system), we request that you contact us in writing. We will consider the details and attempt to resolve the concern in accordance with our complaint resolution process.

‍Overseas Transfer of Data
‍We will not transfer your personal information to an overseas recipient unless we have your consent, or we are required to do so by law.

‍Retention of medical records Your health records will be kept by us for at least seven years after your last attendance. Proact may retain inactive electronic records for longer than seven years.

‍Patient Consent

‍Proact will only interpret and apply a patient’s consent for the primary purpose for which it was given. Our staff must seek additional consent from you if the personal information collected may be used for any other purpose.

WEBSITE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE
‍These Terms and Conditions along with Proact Health’s Privacy Policy summarise the acceptable use of this website, service provision, and limitations of access to services and products.

‍Purpose of the Website
‍The Proact Health website is designed to provide information about services and service providers at Proact Health clinics and to provide access to our online appointment booking facility.

‍Services and Products
‍Services available online through the website may include provision of health-related information, purchase of products, access to preliminary health assessments, limited urgent appointments for some conditions, prescription renewals, patient registration forms, health survey forms, online bookings, and subscription to our mailing list. Products and services may not be available at all times as we are committed to making them available only when we are able to provide the highest level of service delivery.

‍Mailing List
‍Subscription to our mailing list is voluntary, free, and you can unsubscribe at any time. The mailing list is for the purpose of providing information on general health topics of interest, scientific and medical treatment updates, and Proact’s services and products. The personal information you provide when subscribing to our email list will not be passed on to third parties, sold or otherwise intentionally released in any way.When you use our website to browse our products and services and view the information we make available, a number of cookies are used by us and by third parties to allow the website to function, to collect useful information about visitors and to help to make your user experience better.Some of the cookies we use are strictly necessary for our website to function, and we don’t ask for your consent to place these on your computer. These cookies are essential to enable you to navigate around our website and use its core features. Without these cookies, services such as remembering your login details or ensuring what you see looks correct on the device you are using would not be possible. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing and do not track your internet usage. Other cookies help us understand how you interact with our website by collecting and reporting information about your journey on our website. For example, they help us understand which pages you go to most often, how much time you spend on which pages, which links you choose to click and the journey you took during the website session.

‍Dispute Resolution Process
‍Proact takes complaints, concerns and errors seriously. Patients should express concerns about the functioning of the website, products or services in writing. Proact will investigate and attempt to resolve the concern in a timely fashion and in accordance with its complaints resolution process.

‍Confidentiality
‍Any personal information you provide to Proact Health through our website is held by us securely and managed in accordance with our privacy policy.

‍Ownership of Intellectual Property
‍Proact Health’s website and information contained and presented on the website is the property of Proact Health. We will seek legal action in circumstances where this information is copied, plagiarised, taken out of context or used for anything other than the intended purpose.