Privacy policy

Current as of: 1/04/2025

Introduction

This privacy policy is to provide information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

Why and when your consent is necessary

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will seek additional consent from you to do this.

Why do we collect, use, hold and share your personal information?

Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide healthcare services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (eg staff training).

What personal information do we collect?

The information we will collect about you includes your:

· names, date of birth, addresses, contact details

· medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, social history, family history and risk factors

· Medicare number (where necessary) for identification and claiming purposes

· Healthcare identifiers

· Health fund details

· National Disability Insurance Scheme plan details.

Dealing with us anonymously

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.

How do we collect your personal information?

Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways.

1. When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration.

2. During the course of providing services, we may collect further personal information.

3. We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media.

4. In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is because it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:

· your guardian or responsible person

· other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services

· your health fund, Medicare, or the National Disability Insurance Scheme (as necessary).

When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?

We sometimes share your personal information:

· with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with APPs and this policy

· with other healthcare providers

· when it is required or authorised by law (eg court subpoenas)

· 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

· to assist in locating a missing person

· to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim

· for the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process

· when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (eg some diseases require mandatory notification)

Confidentiality

Children under the age of 14 require consent from parents or guardians. Children over the age of 16 have the same consent rights as adults.

Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.

We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

Our practice 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.

Our practice may use your personal information to improve the quality of the services we offer to our patients through research and analysis of our patient data.

We 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 your speech pathologist know if you do not want your information included.

There are exemptions to the duty to maintain confidentiality, which are both legal and ethical, including when there is a risk to you or others, or if we are responding to a subpoena or court order.

Health professionals have mandatory reporting requirements. Mandatory reporting refers to the legislative requirement imposed on certain people to report suspected cases of child abuse and neglect to government authorities.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms. This includes electronic records, paper records, and audio recordings. All information we receive from you is stored and protected on our secure servers from unauthorised use or access.

Our practice stores all personal information securely. All personal information will be stored securely in protected information systems or in hard copy format in a secured environment. All electronic information is password protected. Hard copy information is stored in secured cabinets. All staff and contractors handling personal information must sign confidentiality agreements.

We will use all reasonable means to protect the confidentiality of your Personal Data while in our possession or control. Credit card information is encrypted before transmission and is not stored by us on our servers.

In the event there is a breach of our security and your Personal Data is compromised, we will promptly notify you in compliance with the applicable law.

Retention of personal information

We will not keep your personal information for longer than we need to. In most cases, this means that we will only retain your personal information for the duration of your relationship with us unless we are required to retain your personal information to comply with applicable laws, for example record-keeping obligations. 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.

Online activity

This website uses cookies and similar technologies, which are small files or pieces of text that download to a device when a visitor accesses a website or app. For information about viewing the cookies dropped on your device, visit The cookies Squarespace uses.

These necessary and required cookies are always used, which allow Squarespace, our hosting platform, to securely serve this website to you.

These analytics and performance cookies are used on this website, as described below, only when you acknowledge our cookie banner. This website uses analytics and performance cookies to view site traffic, activity, and other data.

If you do not wish to use the cookies, you can amend the settings on your internet browser so it will not automatically download cookies. However, if you remove or block cookies on your computer, please be aware that your browsing experience and our website’s functionality may be affected.

Form block submissions

When you submit information to this website via webform, we collect the data requested in the webform in order to track and respond to your submissions. We share this information with Squarespace, our online store hosting provider, so that they can provide website services to us. We also share this information with Google for storage and data porting.

Website visitors

This website is hosted by Squarespace. Squarespace collects personal data when you visit this website, including:

· Information about your browser, network and device

· Web pages you visited prior to coming to this website

· Web pages you view while on this website

· Your IP address

Squarespace needs the data to run this website, and to protect and improve its platform and services. Squarespace analyzes the data in a de-personalized form.

Website analytics

This website collects personal data to power our site analytics, including:

· Information about your browser, network, and device

· Web pages you visited prior to coming to this website

· Your IP address

This information may also include details about your use of this website, including:

· Clicks

· Internal links

· Pages visited

· Scrolling

· Searches

· Timestamps

We share this information with Squarespace, our website analytics provider, to learn about site traffic and activity.

How can you access and correct your personal information at our practice?

You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.

Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their records. We require you to put this request in writing to our email and our practice will respond within a 48 hours.

Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing to admin@writethisway.au.

How can you lodge a privacy-related complaint, and how will the complaint be handled at our practice?

We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing to admin@writethisway.au. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure and respond to your email within 48 hours.

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.

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. Patients will be notified via email when this policy is reviewed.

Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy or the use of your Personal Data, please contact us at admin@writethiswayspeech.com.au and we will respond within 48 hours.