Privacy Policy

In accordance with Australian Privacy Principles (APP), Malvern Chiropractic and Melbourne Spine Clinic’s assurance to privacy and personal information is of the utmost importance and standards. Our commitment to you is:

The Practice will:

  • Collect personal information to manage a patient’s healthcare and for financial claims and payments.
  • Ensure staff comply with the APP and deal appropriately with inquiries or concerns
  • Take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to implement practices, procedures and systems to ensure compliance with the APP and deal with inquiries or complaints
  • Provide a copy of this policy upon request

Staff responsibility

The Practice’s staff will take reasonable steps to ensure patients understand the following:

  • What information has been and is being collected
  • Why the information is being collected, and whether this is due to a legal requirement
  • How the information will be used or disclosed
  • Why and when their consent is necessary
  • The Practice’s procedures for access and correction of information, and responding to complaints of information breaches, including by providing this policy.

Patient consent

The Practice will only interpret and apply a patient’s consent for the primary purpose for which it was provided. The Practice staff must seek additional consent from the patient if the personal information collected may be used for any other purpose.

Collection of information

The Practice will need to collect personal information to provide clinical services to a patient at the practice. Collected personal information will include patients’:

  • Names, addresses and contact details (including but not limited to: Landline Telephone and/or
  • Mobile Telephone Numbers, Email Address etc.)
  • Medicare number (where available) (for identification and claiming purposes)
  • Healthcare identifiers
  • Medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors.

A patient’s personal information may be held at the Practice in various forms:

  • as paper records
  • as electronic records (including secure web-based formats)
  • as visual – x-rays, CT scans, videos and photos
  • as audio recordings.

The Practice’s procedure for collecting personal information.

  1. Practice staff collect patients’ personal and demographic information via registration when patients present to the Practice for the first time. This is done when the patient completes a Confidential Patient History Questionnaire in either hard-copy paper or secure web-based formats.
  2. The Practice’s healthcare practitioners will consequently collect further personal information while providing medical services during the initial and subsequent consultations. This information may be kept in various formats (as stated above).
  3. Personal information may also be collected from the patient’s guardian or responsible person (where practicable and necessary), or any other involved healthcare specialists and securely stored in various formats (as stated above).

Use and disclosure of information

Personal information will only be used for the purpose of providing medical services and for claims and payments, unless otherwise consented to. Some disclosure may occur to third parties engaged by or for the Practice for business purposes, such as the provision of information technology. These third parties are required to comply with this policy. The Practice will inform the patient where there is a statutory requirement to disclose certain personal information (for example, some diseases require mandatory notification).

The Practice will not disclose personal information to any third party other than in the course of providing medical services, without full disclosure to the patient or the recipient, the reason for the information transfer and full authorisation from the patient. The Practice will not disclose personal information to anyone outside Australia without need and without patient consent.
Exceptions to disclose without patient consent are where the information is:

  • Required by law.
  • 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 a confidential dispute resolution process.

Managing patient health information.

The Practice will not use any personal information in relation to direct marketing to a patient without that patient’s express consent. Patients may opt-out of direct marketing at any time by notifying the Practice in a letter or email.

The Practice evaluates all unsolicited information it receives to decide if it should be kept, acted on or destroyed.

The Practice, where relevant, will securely destroy patients’ personal information and/or records in conjunction with the legal requirements for safe keeping of records for medical/ healthcare purposes. This means after seven (7) years of inactivity a patient’s records are removed from the Practice and destroyed in line with secure document destruction procedures and processes.

Access, corrections and privacy concerns

The Practice acknowledges patients may request access to their medical records. Patients are encouraged to make this request in writing, and the Practice will respond within a reasonable time.

The Practice will take reasonable steps to correct personal information where it is satisfied, they are not accurate or up to date. From time to time, the Practice will ask patients to verify the personal information held by the Practice is correct and up to date. Patients may also request the Practice corrects or updates their information, and patients should make such requests in writing.

The Practice takes complaints and concerns about the patients’ personal information privacy seriously. The Practice will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with its complaint resolution procedure. Any complaints or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy should be made in writing and directed via email to the following:

Attn: Business Manager
Malvern Chiropractic and Melbourne Spine Clinic
Email: info@malvernchiropracticclinic.com.au