Your Privacy

Introduction

We respect and uphold your right to privacy protection under the Australian Privacy Principles (APP’s).

This policy describes how we manage any personal information we have about you.

What personal information about you do we hold?

We may hold the following information about you:

• name, address, telephone number(s)
• date of birth
• e-mail address
• occupation
• health information
• current General Practitioner
• current Optometrist
• referring Practitioner
• health fund, Medicare and health card particulars
• religious beliefs or affiliations
• transaction details associated with services we have provided to you
• any additional information provided to us by you
• any information you have provided to us through patient surveys

AE&LC will destroy or de-identify personal information due to redundancy after its legal obligations to retain the information have expired.

What do we do with your personal information?

The purpose for which it is collected includes:

• to provide medical treatment and care to you
• to assist your treating doctors, nursing staff and other allied health professionals in providing medical treatment and care to you at our facilities
• to assist with any calls you make to us
• for our internal administrative requirements
• to process private health fund and Medicare claims
• to provide information to Medical Practitioners, Registered Nurses and other Allied Health Professionals who provide necessary follow up treatment and ongoing care
• for benchmarking and clinical indicator reporting in a de-identified form
• to provide data to State Government agencies in compliance with numerous legislative requirements
• to provide data to the Private Hospital Data Bureau, and Health Funds under contractual requirements
• To understand internally how you hear about AE&LC and our services through our marketing programs and campaigns.

and with your consent:

• To communicate to you promotional offers and special events
• Fundraising
• Service planning
• We may also use some of the information for direct marketing with your permission

We will not disclose personal information about you to any person except on a confidential basis to agents that we use in the ordinary operation of our business, such as for data processing, printing or mailing.  You may at any time opt out of receiving any communications from us (other than as required for the operation of our business or your successful treatment).

How personal information is held

We store personal information:

• contained in paper based and other hard copy documents in a dedicated storage facility located in our facility; and
• contained in electronic records in a secure environment.

Such records are only accessible by those persons who require access to the personal information for the purpose of carrying out their employment with us, or by contractors engaged by us for the purpose of maintaining our computer systems.

How to access or correct information

You may request access to personal information we hold about you by writing to our Privacy Officer, at the address noted below or by contacting our staff who will provide you with the necessary information you require.  Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices as to how you may access it.

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it.  We will consider if the information requires amendment.  If we do not agree that there are grounds for this, then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

Where information is held about a patient who is incapable of giving consent, a responsible person may be deemed appropriate.

Cross Border Disclosures

Before we disclose personal information to an overseas recipient, reasonable steps will be taken to ensure the overseas recipient does not breach the APP’s in relation to that information.

Any questions about this policy, or any complaint regarding treatment of your privacy by us, should also be made in writing to the address below:

Attention to The General Manager

Adelaide Eye & Laser Centre
215 Greenhill Road
EASTWOOD  SA  5063
Phone: 08  8274 7000
Email: aelc@aelc.com.au

To contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, telephone 1300 363 992 or email enquiries@oaic.gov.au 

Miscellaneous

This document represents our policy with amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 as at March 2014.  We may change this policy from time to time.  Although we intend to observe this policy at all times, it is not legally binding in any way on us.  From time to time we may regard it as necessary or desirable to act outside the policy. We may do so, subject only to any other applicable contractual rights you have and any statutory rights you have under the Privacy Act or other applicable legislation.