Privacy Policy 2023

Harmony Nursing Australia PRIVACY POLICY 2023

 

Introduction

Patient privacy is very important to Harmony Nursing Australia Pty Ltd. We respect the rights of Clients and ensure all personal and patient health information remains private the confidential. Your personal health information refers to information pertaining to your health, medical history, past and future medical care.

Harmony Nursing Australia is bound by the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles in collecting, maintaining, and storing personal health information in a private and secure manner.

 

Client consent

All new Clients to Harmony Nursing Australia are requested to read and sign their consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal health information. Refusing to sign the consent form may compromise the quality of healthcare and treatment given. The consent form reflects the information contained within our Privacy Policy.

 

Information collection

Harmony Nursing Australia may collect the following personal information from its Clients:

• Identifying and contact information including, but not limited to: full name, date of birth, residential address, postal address, contact phone number(s) and email address

• Health information, including, but not limited to: current and past medical history and any new health information

• Other information including: racial/ ethnic origin, sexual practices, philosophical beliefs and lifestyle factors

• Financial information such as account history and billing

 

Harmony Nursing Australia will collect information from third-party health care providers for the purposes pertaining to continuity of care. Third-party providers may include GPs, specialists, medical laboratories, hospitals, allied health professionals, pathology and diagnostic imaging etc.

Harmony Nursing Australia will retain all personal health information collected for a minimum of seven (7) years following the Clients’ last interaction with Harmony Nursing Australia, as required by law.

The destruction of any personal health information will be conducted by an accredited third-party provider.

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Disclosure of personal health information

Harmony Nursing Australia will not disclose personal health information to a third-party unless:

• The patient has consented to the disclosure

• In accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) the disclosure is to a responsible carer of that person, as in the case of a child, or if the person in question is physically or legally incapable of giving consent to the disclosure, or for compassionate reasons, unless there is good evidence of the persons wish to the contrary

• Harmony Nursing Australia is legally obliged to disclose information (e.g. notification of certain infectious diseases, suspected child abuse etc.

• Disclosure is necessary to prevent a serious or imminent threat to an individuals life, health or safety or to prevent a criminal offence or serious improper conduct

• It is required for judicial or administrative or coroner proceedings or is required under a court order or subpoena

• It is the subject of a search warrant or is required to identify or locate a missing person

• It is required to facilitate organ donation.

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Harmony Nursing Australia may be required to disclose personal health information to third-parties overseas where a patient is in need of urgent medical assistance, or where medical evacuation is required.

Harmony Nursing Australia will take all reasonable steps to ensure that information disclosed to an international third-party is protected and treated as confidential.

Harmony Nursing Australia will use patient demographic and health information for:

• Communication regarding treatments and notifications about recommended preventative health care services

• Accounting and billing

• The diagnosis and treatment of any health conditions, including other healthcare practitioners to ensure quality patient care

• Research, accreditation and quality assurance activities, using de-identified aggregate patient health information

• To allow medical students and staff to participate in medical training and teaching using de-identified information

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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 medical services, we may collect further personal information. The practice participates in uploading Shared Health Summaries with your consent.

3. 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, next of kin, or allocated third-party authority

• 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 Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary)

 

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How do we store and protect your personal information?

Harmony Nursing Australia retains all data collected in an electronic format and has systems in place to protect the privacy, security, quality and integrity of the data.

Harmony Nursing Australia takes all reasonable steps to ensure data security, including, but not limited to:

• Physical security of hardware and software

• Web servers connected to the internet are protected by appropriate hardware/ software firewalls

• Computers are protected by antivirus software that is installed and updated frequently

• Servers are backed up and checked at frequent intervals and stored in a secure environment

• Multi-Factor Authentication required to access the client database

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Access to Personal Health Information

All healthcare practitioners at Harmony Nursing Australia have access to personal health information contained within the practice’s clinical management system to ensure optimal management and care us delivered to all Clients.

All healthcare practitioners and administrative staff have access to patient demographic and financial account details.

 

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

Clients of Harmony Nursing Australia are able to request access to their personal health information stored at Harmony Nursing Australia.

Request to access personal health information should be made in writing to our Privacy Director, Amanda Borg.

It is at the discretion of the patient’s primary General Practitioner to provide the patient with either an up-to-date summary of their medical history, or a copy of all their personal health information.

Harmony Nursing Australia will not be required to provide patients access to their personal health information where:

• Harmony Nursing Australia reasonably believes that giving access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual, or to public health or safety; or

• The request for access of frivolous or vexatious; or

• The information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings, and would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings; or

• Giving access would reveal the intentions of Harmony Nursing Australia in relation to negotiations with the individual in such a way as to prejudice those negotiations; or

• Giving access would be unlawful; or

• Denying access is required or authorized by or under an Australian law or court/ tribunal order; or

• Both the following apply:

  • Harmony Nursing Australia has reason to suspect that unlawful activity or misconduct of a serious nature, that is related to the entity’s function or activities has been, is being, or may be engaged in:

  • Giving access would be likely to prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to the matter; or

• Giving access would likely prejudice one or more enforcement-related activities conducted by, or on behalf of, an enforcement body; or

• Giving access would reveal evaluative information generated within the entity in connection with a commercially sensitive decision-making process

On receiving a written request to access personal health information, Harmony Nursing Australia will respond within a reasonable period. Harmony Nursing Australia will provide the patient with access to the information in the manner requested by the individual if it is reasonable and practicable to do so.

If Harmony Nursing Australia refuses to grant access to the patient’s personal health information requested or give access in the form requested, Harmony Nursing Australia will provide written notices that sets out:

• The reasons for the refusal (except where disclosure of the reasons would be inappropriate); and

• The mechanisms available to complain about the refusal

As per the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 (Cth), Harmony Nursing Australia reserves the right to charge a reasonable administration fee to complete a request for access to personal health information.

 

Correction of personal information

Harmony Nursing Australia endeavours to keep all patient information collected up-to-date, accurate and complete for the duration of its active use.

It is a patient’s obligation to notify Harmony Nursing Australia of any changes to their contact details.

If a patient becomes aware that their personal information held by Harmony Nursing Australia is incorrect, the patient has the ability to request a correction of the information.

Requests to change personal contact information should be directed to the Practice Manager. Requests to change personal health information should be directed to the patient’s primary General Practitioner.

If Harmony Nursing Australia refuses to correct the information corrected by the patient, Harmony Nursing Australia will provide written notice that sets out:

• The reasons for the refusal, except to the extent that it would be unreasonable to do so; and

• The mechanisms available to complain about the refusal.

Harmony Nursing Australia will make every reasonable effort to notify a third-party if information provided to them by Harmony Nursing Australia is found to be incorrect.

There is no charge to the patient for requesting the correction of personal information.

 

Complaints and Feedback Process

This procedure outlines the responsibilities and processes for the consistent management of customer complaints and positive feedback across all areas of the service.

Harmony Nursing Australia provides Comprehensive nursing and care services in your home

‘We care for you’ Is not just a motto, it’s a lifestyle. We understand that Complaints are important and should be discussed and addressed as soon as possible. Our Quality-of-service delivery including honesty and transparency is important to us so we would like to know if something is not up to standard so that we can work together to find a solution.

A customer complaint involves an expression of dissatisfaction about the service or action of an employee by a customer as they have been directly affected by the service or action. Harmony Nursing Australia views Customer complaints as an opportunity to identify issues and take action to improve service delivery, customer experiences, and a culture of continuous improvement.

Harmony Nursing Australia’s complaint handling system will ensure quality service in the following ways:

· By ensuring issues are dealt with promptly and effectively

· Enhance ongoing relationships with the consumer, family, and representative

· Cultivate a blame-free, resolution, focused complaints culture

· Contribute to continuous improvement approach by extensively reviewing a complaint with consumer input and updates on actions to be implemented

· Gain insight from complaints to develop risk management, service delivery, and staff development systems

Harmony Nursing Australia will make the Complaints process accessible:

· Every consumer Welcome Pack will contain a Feedback form with the brochure included. This feedback form is also easily accessible online at https://www.harmonynursingaustralia.com.au/contact-4

· Nursing staff and support workers will actively seek feedback as part of ongoing conversations with consumers.

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Positive Feedback:

Harmony Nursing Australia would also like to know what we are doing well.

Positive Feedback includes areas where a customer is satisfied with a service and would like to commend aspects of that service including staff performance. Positive Feedback is important as it confirms that our Quality of service is being upheld.

Positive feedback can be documented in the feedback form which can be utilized for either complaints and or positive feedback and is located in the welcome pack and or online as above.

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Responsibilities

All staff receiving customer complaints:

1) Acknowledge customer frustration

2) Thank the customer for their feedback

3) Clarify and apologise for any misunderstandings

4) Ensure the customer has a feedback form or direct them to the Website

5) Notify the Clinical Manager or Director

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Clinical Nurse Manager

1) Acknowledge complaint quickly, identify the customer concern, and give them a timeframe for a response

2) Assess the complaint and think about how it will be best resolved

3) Investigate the complaint - Identify the problem and root cause of the concern

4) Respond to the complainant- Communicate the outcome of the investigation

5) Follow up any concerns- Ensure the customer is satisfied with response

6) Consider learnings from complaints and what can be improved to help prevent the same issue from occurring again e.g. implement policies and or consider staff education and or performance review.

7) Escalate any unresolved matters to the Risk management committee
 

Policy review statement

The Privacy Policy is updated regularly in line with any changes to the Privacy legislation, regulations, and Australian Privacy Principles. The current policy is available on our website and in our head office.