1. Introduction
Aged Care Doctor Services is a medical practice specializing in the administrative aspects of practice management for General Practitioners (GPs) who serve aged care patients. We manage personal information to efficiently run our practice, meet patients’ healthcare needs, and ensure the smooth and appropriate flow of information between patients, doctors, aged care facilities, Medicare, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), My Health Records, and other healthcare providers.
2. Our Commitment
Aged Care Doctor Services is committed to best practices in managing personal information. We have developed this policy to safeguard patient privacy, ensuring compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).
3. What kinds of personal information do we collect?
We may collect and hold the following types of personal information:
- Personal Details: Name, address, date of birth, email, and contact details
- Identifiers: Medicare number, DVA number, IHI number for My Health Records, and other government identifiers
- Health Information: Symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, medical preferences, specialist reports, test results, appointment and billing details, prescriptions, genetic information, healthcare identifier, and any other relevant personal information.
4. How do we collect and hold personal information?
We collect personal information through:
- Patient registration forms
- Aged care facilities arranging appointments
- Direct patient interactions during appointments
- Data entry by doctors and administrative staff
- Transfer of records from other practices
- Other healthcare providers involved in your care
We use various software systems for medical practice administration, appointment management, and maintaining drug charts.
Our website also collects information about visitors, such as webpage views, IP addresses, browser types, and cookies to enhance user experience.
5. Why do we collect, hold, use, and disclose personal information?
We handle personal information to:
- Provide healthcare services
- Manage healthcare administration
- Ensure appropriate information flow between healthcare entities
- Communicate with patients and caregivers
- Comply with legal obligations
- Facilitate consultations and insurance claims
- Upload and download information to/from My Health Record
- Monitor and optimize our website
We use third-party suppliers for administrative tasks and IT services, ensuring they comply with privacy laws through training, contracts, and data breach response plans.