PRIVACY

Introduction

We are committed to adopting the highest standards to safeguard our patients’ personal information. This privacy statement explains what information we collect, how information is collected, used and handled, when information may be disclosed to third parties with patient consent, and your rights for requesting either access or amendment to your persona information.

Information We Collect

We will only collect information that is necessary for providing our services to you. We will only collect information that is necessary for the purposes for which it will be used. We collect the following types of personal, or individually identifiable, information such as:

1. Name and contact details
2. Personal details such as date of birth and gender
3. Previous dentists
4. Sensitive information
5. Medical history
6. Family medical history
7. Current health and dental assessment
8. Health insurance details
9. Financial information

How Information May Be Collected

We may collect personal information directly from you in a number of ways:

1. You may choose to provide information through the online patient or contact forms on our website; or
2. You may complete forms, send us an email, provide information during a visit to our practice or by phone.
3. We may also collect information from third parties if you have provided them with consent under their own privacy policies:
4. We may collect information from third parties such as your health insurance provider or Medicare; or
5. We may collect information from other dentists, dental specialists or other health practitioners

Use Of Information

Your personal information may be used for a number of purposes:

1. To provide dental and related services to you
2. To maintain and administer your patient file
3. To administer your invoicing for dental services, credit card payments, or to collect unpaid invoices
4. To follow you up regarding further dental examinations or treatments required
5. To send information to you about our dental practice
6.  If you do submit online forms or send emails to us containing personal information, we will use that information to respond to your message or to contact you

The main purpose of collecting and using personal information submitted through our website is to respond to patient and customer enquiries or feedback from this site. The information gathered will only be used to complete your request unless specifically stated on a particular form.

We may store your contact information for future reference. Online contact forms may also be used to populate your online patient form for use in the administration and functioning of our practice and in providing our services to you. Disclosure To Third Parties

We will not disclose your personal information to a third party without your consent, unless we are required or authorised to do so by law, or if we are required to do so to provide health services in an emergency and you are unable to provide consent.

Your personal information may be disclosed:

1. To your nominated relatives in an emergency
2. To other dentists, dental specialists and other healthcare professionals, for the purpose of seeking a second opinion
3. A referral, where the patient has consented to obtaining the second opinion or the referral to third party health benefit providers and insurance companies (contact information only) to assist in the processing of a claim for reimbursement or payment of all or part of the cost of dental treatment submitted by you or on your behalf; or to carry out a review of the practice for the purposes of improving the quality of care provided.

Handling Of Information

Information provided by you will be handled in accordance with Australian privacy laws including the National Privacy Principles. We maintain strict data security standards and procedures with a view to preventing unauthorised access to your data by anyone other than us.

Your personal information may be handled by our staff. All staff are required to enter into confidentiality agreements to protect the information you provide from unauthorised access.

Information will be used by staff at our practice for the administration or use of the practice and in the provision of services to you.

Email addresses and any other contact details you provide will not be added to a mailing list without your consent.

Website Security

The protection of personal privacy is a priority for us. Our website does not provide facilities that guarantee secure transmission of information over the internet. You should be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the internet, including online forms and email. If you are concerned about conveying sensitive or personal material to we over the internet, contact us by telephone to discuss the matter.

Our website contains links to other websites. You should take care in providing personal information to external websites linked to our website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites or external websites linked to this website.

We collect standard web server/visitor traffic information, commonly referred to as aggregate information, regarding overall website traffic patterns. Normally, web servers collect this type of basic information as part of their web log processes. We only use this information for statistical, reporting and website administration and maintenance purposes. It is not used in a way that individually identifies you, and we do not report on individual users.

Cookies

We use cookies on our web site, but only for the operation of the website. We do not use cookies to capture any personal information such as name, phone, passwords etc. The types of information captured by cookies may include the user’s server address, the user’s operating system, the date, time and duration of the visit and the type of internet browser used.

A cookie is a block of data that is shared between a web server and a user’s browser. Cookies give the server information about a user’s identity and website visiting patterns and preferences. You can find more information about cookies at the Microsoft website.

Access/Amend/Update InformationIf you believe that any information held by us about you is incorrect or incomplete you should contact us to amend this information. Any information which is found to be incorrect will be corrected as soon as possible.

You have the right to access personal information that is held about you. To obtain a copy of your personal information that we hold, please call us or fill in our online contact form.

Photographs

All the before and after photographs on our website or displayed in our practices are from actual procedures on patients at our practice. No retouching or other modification has been conducted on the photographs. All patients who appear in these photographs have signed consent release forms and no photos are displayed without their written consent. The photographs published do not predict future patient results, as all patient results are different for each person.

Changes To The Privacy Statement

We may change the content or services found on our website at any time without notice. Consequently our Privacy Statement may change at any time also without notice.If you have any further questions regarding the handling of your personal information please contact us.

last review and update 20 August 2014