Privacy Policy  

Key Health CBD South Pty Ltd ACN 648 893 930 and its related companies (collectively referred to as Key Health) respects your right to privacy and is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our patients and website visitors. We adhere to the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act). This policy sets out how we collect, use and treat your personal information (which includes your health information), the circumstances in which we may disclose it with third parties and how you may access that information and seek the correction of such information. 

Personal Information 

‘Personal information’ referred to in this Privacy Policy consists of any information or opinion that identifies you or that will enable your identity to be reasonably ascertained. Personal information that Key Health collects can include your name, contact details such as your residential or postal address, email address, date of birth or your telephone number, Medicare number (where available), healthcare identifiers, health fund details and information about your health and any medical conditions (including your medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations and family history). 

Your personal information may also be referred to as a Personal Health Record (PHR). A personal health record may include all the aforementioned ‘personal information’ identifiers.

In particular:

• The names and phone numbers of healthcare providers

• Allergies, including drug allergies

• Your medications, including dosages

• List and dates of illnesses and surgeries

• Chronic health problems, such as high blood pressure

• A living will or advance directives

• Family history

• Immunization history       

In some cases, if you are participating in special preventative or monitoring measures for a certain condition, your healthcare provider may ask you to monitor and record various vital signs and lifestyle habits to be entered into your personal health record. Some information that can be included are:

• Home blood pressure readings

• Blood sugar readings

• Exercise and dietary habits

• Health goals, such as smoking cessation and weight loss activities and progress

Information which cannot be reasonably linked to your identity (e.g. IP address, browser information, favourite websites or the number of users of a website) does not constitute personal information and is not regulated by the Act. Your use of this website does not reveal your identity. However, if you wish to receive medical care and treatment, we will ask you for your name and other personal details necessary to provide you with appropriate medical care. You are entirely free to decide whether or not to supply this information and 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. Please also note that if you choose not to provide your personal information to us, this may affect our ability to provide personalised medical services to you.  

Consent 

By providing your personal information and/or registering as a patient of Key Health, you consent to your personal information being collected, used and disclosed in accordance with this Privacy Policy so that we can provide you with the best possible healthcare. Only the relevant Key Health staff who are required to access your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your personal information for anything else that is not specified in this Privacy Policy, we will seek your additional consent.  

Collection of personal information  

Key Health collects, receives and stores personal information that you provide to us personally over the phone, in writing, in person or via our website. We may ask you from time to time to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. 

In certain circumstances, we may also need to collect personal information from other sources such as treating specialists, radiologists, pathologists, hospitals and other health care providers. In emergency situations, we may also need to collect your personal information from your legal guardians, relatives or friends.  

Key Health will store your personal information on a secure electronic computer database and/or in physical form. We may be required by law to retain your medical records for certain periods of time depending on your age at the time we provide the medical services. 

Use and disclosure of your personal information 

Key Health will treat your personal information as strictly private and confidential and will only use personal information collected from you for purposes related to your care and treatment. This includes the disclosure of your personal information to any employee of Key Health insofar as reasonably necessary for Key Health to provide healthcare services to you. We may also use your personal information for directly related business activities of Key Health such as processing payments, practice audits, research and analysis of patient data.  

There are circumstances where Key Health may be permitted or required by law to disclose your personal information to third parties, including but not limited to Medicare, law enforcement, insurers, lawyers, government regulatory bodies, tribunals, courts of law, hospitals or debt collection agents. Key Health may also share your personal information 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 (including providing assistance to locate a missing person), or if otherwise permitted by law (i.e. some diseases require mandatory notification).  

Key Health 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. 

Information that we collect may from time to time be stored, processed in or transferred between parties located outside of Australia. We impose strict security and confidentiality requirements on how such parties must handle your personal information.   

Key Health 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 reception staff know if you do not want your information to be included. 

Key Health uses practice software Best Practice to store and maintain your personal health record. Only authorized staff have access to patient files and ability to collect or update patient records. For outgoing referral letters, Best Practice provides a basic template for healthcare provider use. Our template contains the practice letterhead and contact information and the referring date as a standard. All other information is populated individually by the referring practitioner as needed. Some information that may be included to be sent to external healthcare providers may include your name, date of birth, contact information and relevant details of health conditions related to transfer of care.

Security of your personal information 

Key Health is committed to ensuring that the information you provide to us is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. 

Key Health maintains physical security over paper and electronic data storage through securing the premises at all times. Key Health also maintains computer and network security through the use of firewalls and other security systems such as user identifiers and passwords to control access to the computer systems. This website does not use encryption or other technologies to ensure the secure transmission of information via the internet, and users of this website are encouraged to exercise care in submitting any Personal Information via the website. 

This website may contain links to third-party websites. Key Health is not responsible for the content, storage or privacy practices of websites that are linked to our website and owned by a third party. We encourage users to be aware, when they leave this website, to read the privacy statements of each website that collects personal identifiable information. 

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to provide a better browsing experience. If you prefer not to have cookies collected, you can disable this option in your browser settings.

Google Analytics, API etc.

We use products such as Google Analytics to analyse the audience statistics of Our website to improve Our content. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics.

We collect your personal information from Google application programming interfaces (APIs). We use Google APIs, namely Google Maps, in conjunction with Our QR codes to verify your address when filling out digital patient registration forms.

Access to your personal information 

You may request access to your medical records that we hold. A small administrative fee may be payable for the provision of information. We reserve the right to refuse to provide you with access to your medical records in certain circumstances permitted by the Act, for example if disclosure may cause a serious threat to your health or safety. 

If you would like a copy of your medical records or if you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please email us at hr@keyhealth.com.au and we will respond within a reasonable time.

Complaints about privacy 

If you have any complaints about our privacy practices, please feel free to send in details of your complaints to hr@keyhealth.com.au. We take complaints very seriously and will respond shortly after receiving written notice of your complaint. 

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. 

Email and other applications

As email is not a secure form of communication, unless encrypted, we prefer not to employ the use of email for the purposes of transferring personal information or communicating with patients.

Our online bookings and SMS reminders are facilitated through Hotdoc. If you subscribe to this service it is necessary for Hotdoc to access your personal details (such as your name, address and contact number). For more information on their privacy and security policy please see their website – https://www.hotdoc.com.au/privacy-policy

Amendments to Privacy Policy 

This Privacy Policy is current from 17 February 2023. Key Health reserves the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time or make any change to the processes and systems in relation to how we handle your personal information, and any amendments will be effective immediately upon publication.