Melanoma Scan Policies

Introduction

Melanoma Scan Pty Ltd is committed to protecting the privacy of patient information and to handling 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).

This privacy policy explains how we collect, use and disclose your personal information, how you can access that information and how you can seek the correction of any information. It also explains how you can make a complaint about a breach of privacy legislation.

This privacy policy is current from March 2018. 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 privacy policy to reflect any changes. Those changes will be available on our website and in the practice.

Collection

We collect information that is necessary and relevant to provide you with medical care and treatment, and manage our medical practice. This information may include your name, address, date of birth, gender, health information, photographs of your skin, family history, credit card and direct debit details and contact details. This information may be stored on our computer medical records system and/or in hand written medical records.

Wherever practicable we will only collect information from you personally. However, we may also need to collect information from other sources such as treating specialists, pathologists, hospitals and other health care providers.

We collect information in various ways, such as over the phone or in writing, in person in our clinic, via email or websites (our own or third party providers). This information may be collected by medical and non-medical staff.

In emergency situations we may also need to collect information from your relatives or friends.

We are required by law to retain medical records for a certain period of time, depending on your age at the time we provide services.

Use and Disclosure

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 investigation results to your specialist or requests for pathology.

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, insurers, solicitors, government regulatory bodies, tribunals, courts of law, hospitals, or debt collection agents.

Your personal information will not be sold to marketing companies or used for the purpose of promoting any products or services.

 Direct marketing materials

We use Appointuit Software for booking appointments and direct marketing.

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our products and services that we consider may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, fax and email, in accordance with all applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). If, in your dealings with us, you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. In addition, at any time you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us or by using opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications and we will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

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 contact our clinics or when you attend a consultation. We request that you let us know if any of the information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date.

Personal information that we hold is protected by:

• securing our premises; and
• placing passwords and varying access levels on databases to limit access and protect electronic information from unauthorised interference, access, modification and disclosure

Your personal information is not stored on our website or any cloud based systems.

Electronic Transmission of Medical Information

In some cases we may wish to send information about you by email or text message. For example

• If you request copies of your medical records
• We may send pathology results by email so that you have a written copy for your records
• You may request SMS notification of your results
• We may notify you by email about upcoming or missed appointments
• If we refer you to a specialist or hospital clinic, we may send photographs of your skin to that specialist or hospital by email

Because we cannot guarantee the security of unencrypted email, we will always obtain your permission before sending any medical information about you by email.

Corrections

If you believe that the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, we ask that you contact us so that we are able to correct it.

Access

You may request access to any personal information we hold about you.

To access your personal information we ask that you make an appointment with your treating doctor to enable us to release your personal information either to you or forward to external third parties.

We may charge you a fee to cover our administrative and other reasonable costs in providing the information to you and, if so, the fees will be as advised at the time.

There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold; however, we will only do so in accordance with our rights and obligations under the Act. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you written reasons for any refusal.

Complaints

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any concerns or a complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy or a possible breach of your privacy, please contact us in writing.

We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially. Our representative will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved. We will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in a timely and appropriate manner.

If you are dissatisfied with our handling of a complaint or the outcome you may make an application to the Australian Information Commissioner or the Privacy Commissioner in your State or Territory.

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.

Contact

Please use our contact form on our website for any queries or complaints http://www.melanomascan.com.au/contact-us.html

Alternatively please contact us directly at:

Melanoma Scan Toombul

Phone: 07 3256 6766

Melanoma Scan Mitchelton

Phone: 07 3855 8500