Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement

The Orthotic Clinic recognises your right to privacy, and is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our patients and website visitors. We adhere to the National Privacy Principles contained in the Federal Privacy Act, which in 2001 was amended to include the Private Health Sector throughout Australia. The information contained within this policy outlines how we collect and treat your personal information. By providing us with your personal information, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Definitions of Personal, De-identified and Sensitive Information

The term “personal information” refers to information we hold about an individual who is identified or capable of identification from the information.

“De-identified information” is not personal information and involves the removal or alteration of other information that could potentially be used to re-identify an individual.

“Sensitive information” is personal information that is given a higher level of protection by privacy laws. It includes information about an individual’s health, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political opinions and criminal history. References to personal information made throughout this Privacy Policy include sensitive information.

What Information We May Collect from You

The personal information we collect from you will include, but is not limited to:

Name
Address
Telephone numbers
Email addresses
Private Health Insurer / Client number with relevant funding bodies
Current medications and treatments
Current and previous medical history, including family medical history where relevant
Names of healthcare providers and medical specialists to which you have been referred
Copies of any letters of referral or reports

Furthermore, The Orthotic Clinic may access information:

Provided by the patient to our practice or through our website
Provided on the patient’s behalf with their consent
From healthcare providers / medical specialists patients are referred to
From healthcare providers who refer a patient to medical / allied health practitioners working within our practice premises

How We Use Your Personal Information

The personal information we collect from you is used to do what is necessary to provide you with an individualised level of healthcare. We do not use your personal information for any other purpose other than the purpose for which it was disclosed.

The Orthotic Clinic may contact you by a variety of measures including, but not limited to telephone, SMS, email or mail. The purpose of this contact may be to provide you with information, updates, and promote the services we offer which we consider may be of interest to you. If you wish for us not to contact you in relation to such services, please contact us.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes outlined in this Policy. The disclosure of your personal information may be required:

for billing and administrative purposes.
for applications to relevant funding bodies.
to enable the patient to be attended by other practitioners who provide medical and allied health services at and from our practice.
to provide feedback to your referring GP, specialist, or allied health professional on your progress at the completion of our services.
to comply with a legal requirement, such as a law, regulation, court order, subpoena, warrant, in the course of legal proceedings or in response to a law enforcement agency request.
if there is a serious threat to the health or safety of an individual or to public health and safety.

Should there be a change in ownership or control of our business, we reserve the right to transfer to the extent permissible by law our patient databases, together with any personal and non-personal information contained within those databases. This information may be disclosed to a potential purchaser under an agreement to maintain confidentiality.

Information that we collect may from time to time be stored, processed by, or transferred between parties located in countries outside of Australia.

Other than what is stated within this Policy, we will not sell, distribute or disclose any personal information to any third party.

Access to Your Personal Information

You may request the personal information we hold about you in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If you would like a copy of this information, or believe that any of the information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us at [email protected].

Under certain circumstances outlined by the Privacy Act, we reserve the right to refuse to provide you with the information we hold about you.

You do not have access to orthotic scans and design data pertaining to your treatment, as they are considered to be the intellectual property of The Orthotic Clinic.

Storage and Security of Your Personal Information

The Orthotic Clinic is committed to ensuring that your personal information is stored securely and employs suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and protect this information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, disclosure or alteration.

The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk. We cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us, or receive from us.

Australian legislation requires that health information is retained for a minimum of 7 years for adults from the last occasion in which health service was provided to the patient. If the patient is under 18 years of age, records must be kept until they have reached 25 years of age.

Website Security

We endeavour to ensure that high standards of online security are maintained by our website www.orthoticclinic.com.au, however users must be cautioned that the Internet is not a completely secure medium. The Orthotic Clinic take no liability for any interference or damage to a user’s computer system, mobile device, software or data that may occur in connection with visiting our website. We recommend that users take appropriate measures to ensure their devices are protected against third party interference whilst engaging in online activities.

Visitors to our website may have certain information collected from them such as browser type, hardware and operating system specifications, and recent browsing activity via the collection of small files known as cookies. This information is used in an aggregated manner to evaluate how visitors use our website, such that we can improve on the services we provide and enhance user experience. Cookies may also be used analyse website traffic, and to serve relevant advertising material to visitors through third party services.

Should you access a third party site via a link featured on our website, The Orthotic Clinic is not responsible for the Privacy Policies (or lack thereof) of these websites. We encourage all visitors to our website to familiarise themselves with the Privacy Policies of third party websites they access via links from our website.

Updates to Our Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated in the future. We reserve the right to make these changes at our sole discretion at any time, and all changes will be effective immediately upon publication of the updated version of the Privacy Policy on our website, www.orthoticclinic.com.au. We encourage all patients and website visitors to review the Privacy Policy from time to time for any changes that may affect them.

How to Contact Us

If you are concerned about any of the topics covered in this Privacy Policy, wish to make a complaint regarding a breach of privacy, access or correct the personal information we hold on you, or find out more about how we handle your personal information, we can be contacted on [email protected], or you may submit a written letter to:

The Practice Manager
The Orthotic Clinic
133 Murrumbeena Rd
Murrumbeena VIC 3163