We are committed to handling your personal information (including health information) in accordance with Federation University's privacy policy and the requirements of the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.

Please read this privacy policy carefully and contact us if you have any questions.

Type of personal information collected

We collect and hold:

• your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
• information about your family or relatives
• information about other health professionals involved in your care
• other health information about you, such as a record of your symptoms, your relevant medical history, the diagnosis made and the treatment we give you:
  • specialist reports
  • test results
  • your appointment details
  • your prescriptions
  • other information about you collected for the purposes of providing care to you.

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. For more information about state and territory privacy laws, see privacy in your state.

Collection and use of personal information

We generally collect your personal information from your health provider referring to us and/or from you directly during the appointment with us. We use this information to provide speech pathology services to you and to communicate with you and others involved in your care in relation to those services.

Disclosure of personal information

We may disclose information about you to others outside of our practice as permitted or required by law. This will include situations where we disclose information about you in order:

• to comply with our legal obligations (e.g., mandatory reporting under legislation, responding to a court order or subpoena)
• to consult with other health professionals involved in your healthcare
• to get test results from diagnostic and pathology services
• to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or safety
• to help in locating a missing person

Access to and correction of personal information

You have the right to seek access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you.

Correction: If you believe that any information we hold is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading, please contact us by email. We will respond to any request within a reasonable time. We will try to promptly correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold about you. These are designed to prevent unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure, as well as misuse and loss. This includes:

• holding information on an encrypted database
• holding information in secure cloud storage
• getting staff to sign confidentiality documents
• providing staff with training or induction about confidentiality and (in particular) security issues
• access to information restricted on a ‘need to know’ basis and
• strong password protections when accessing the information on a computer.

Disclosing information overseas

Cliniko data management software is used to manage the clinic. Cliniko is a secure software commonly used in private practices. Federation University will disclose your health information to Cliniko, which may transmit that information to its sub-processors in other countries (overseas) for the purpose of administering their health information. For more information, please visit: https://www.cliniko.com/policies/privacy/

Complaints about breaches

If you have concerns about the way we’ve handled your privacy, let us know. You should do that in writing. We will then try to respond to you within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, whose contact details are:

Phone:	1300 363 992
Email:	enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Post:	GPO Box 5218, Sydney, New South Wales 2001
Website:	https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints

Updates

We will update this policy from time to time to reflect any changes in our information-handling practices or the law or both. We will notify you of changes to the policy by posting it on our website.

Speech Pathology Australia Code of Ethics

It is fundamental to the professional responsibilities of speech pathologists to observe the highest standards of integrity and ethical practice. You can read the Speech Pathology Australia Code of Conduct here.

National Code of Conduct

You should expect safe and ethical healthcare from every health service you use. That’s why there is a Code of Conduct for general health services. You can read the code here.

Contact

If you have any questions, concerns or complaints, please contact us at fspc_berwick@federation.edu.au