Speech pathology clinics

In addition to Federation University’s privacy policy, we are committed to handling personal information about you, including health information about you, in accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988. Please contact us if you have any questions.

We collect and hold the following kind of information about you:

• your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
• information about your family or relatives
• information about other health professionals involved in your care
• other health information about you such as a record of your symptoms, your relevant medical history, the diagnosis made and the treatment we give you:
  • specialist reports
  • test results
  • your appointment details
  • your prescriptions
  • other information about you collected for the purposes of providing care to you.

In Victoria, privacy law requires a health service provider to keep records for 7 years or, in the case of a child, until the child turns 25.

We generally collect your personal information from your health provider referring to us and/or from you directly during the appointment with us. We use this information to provide physiotherapy telehealth services to you and to communicate with you and others involved in your care in relation to those services.

We may disclose information about you to others outside of our practice as permitted or required under law. This will include situations where we disclose information about you in order:

• to comply with our legal obligations (e.g., mandatory reporting under legislation, responding to a court order or subpoena)
• to consult with other health professionals involved in your healthcare
• to get test results from diagnostic and pathology services
• to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or safety
• to help in locating a missing person.

You have the right to seek access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you.

If you believe that any information, we hold is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading, please email fspc_berwick@federation.edu.au. We will respond to any request within a reasonable time. We will endeavour to promptly correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold about you. These are designed to prevent unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure and to prevent misuse and loss. This includes:

• holding information on an encrypted database
• holding information in secure cloud storage
• getting staff to sign confidentiality documents
• providing staff with training or induction etc. about confidentiality and (in particular) security issues
• access to information restricted on a ‘need to know’ basis and
• strong password protections when accessing the information on a computer.

Data management system

For documentation purposes of the consultations and for booking management, Zanda data management software is used for the management of the clinic. Zanda is a secure software commonly used in private practices. Fed Uni will be disclosing your health information to Zanda, who host your data in Sydney data centres, aligned with Australian healthcare data protection standards for the purpose of administering health information. For more information, please visit: Privacy Policy - Zanda Health.

Complaints about breach

If you have concerns about the way we’ve handled your privacy, let us know. You should do that in writing. We will then try to respond to you within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commission, whose contact details are:

• Call 1300 363 992
• Email enquiries@oaic.gov.au
• Post to GPO Box 5218 Sydney New South Wales 2001
• https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints