This privacy policy provides information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.
When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our dental practitioners and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible dental care. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will generally seek additional consent from you to do this, unless obtaining your consent is not practical or reasonable, and an exception under the Privacy Act 1988 applies.
Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide dental care to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your dental health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).
The information we will collect about you includes your:
You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.
Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways.
This may include information from:
We sometimes share your personal information:
Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing dental services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.
We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.
Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying our practice in writing.
Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms – such as paper records, electronic records and visual records (X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos).
Our practice stores all personal information securely. All electronic records are stored on password protected, firewalled, encrypted and secure networks and cloud services used are Privacy Act 1988 and HIPAA compliant. All staff are bound by a strict confidentiality agreement in their employment contract
You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.
Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their dental records. We ask that you put this request in writing to the practice or reception@247dental.com.au and our practice will respond within 30 days. There is no fee for access or copying of records unless providing such records requires physical duplication of dental laboratory work.
Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and to assist us with attending to your request we would prefer you to make such requests in writing to the practice or to reception@247dental.com.au.
We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing. We will then attempt to resolve your issue/s in accordance with our resolution procedure. Please contact reception@247dental.com.au or mail addressed to Practice Manager at 24 / 7 Dental, 73 Keys Rd Moorabbin VIC 3189. Our practice will respond within 30 days.
You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The OAIC may decide not to investigate your complaint if you have not raised it with the practice first. If you have lodged a complaint with us, and we have not responded within 30 days or you are dissatisfied with our response, you may then take your complaint to the OAIC. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.
Personal information via our practice website and digital communications (such as social media) may result in the collection of personal information (for example website analytics and cookies).
This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes to privacy legislation and requirements.