This Privacy Statement sets out how the I-MED Group,
including I-MED Network Limited and its associated entities
(collectively I-MED), collects, uses, discloses and otherwise
handles and retains personal information (including sensitive
(health) information) in accordance with our obligations under the
Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and other relevant State/Territory
health privacy legislation.
This Privacy Statement also applies to personal
information that we collect and hold about referring Health
Professionals (and their nominees), Medical Specialists and
hospital staff (and their nominees), other health service
providers, individuals who supply goods and services to I-MED,
employment applicants and other individuals that we have dealings
with.
Why we collect and hold your personal information
I-MED collects and retains personal information
(including sensitive (health) information) in order to provide:
- quality medical imaging services, assist in the provision
of medical care to patients and prospective patients; and
- patient-related services to referring Health Professionals
and/or other health service providers and their respective
nominees.
Personal information is also collected from, and about, employment
applicants and held by I-MED for employment-related purposes and
other individuals with whom we have business dealings.
Generally, we collect personal information directly from you,
however, we will also collect information about you from third
parties, including from your referring Health Professional and/or
Medical Specialist.
The kinds
of personal information we collect and hold
The
main categories of personal information collected and held by I-MED
include:
- name;
- address;
- phone number(s);
- email address;
- date of birth; and
- gender.
I-MED also collects and holds sensitive (health)
information from others in the course of providing health services
to you including but not limited to:
- the results of any tests or procedures;
- information about your past clinical history (eg
medication taken, previous test results, pathology results, etc)
and other circumstances (including family, social, medical or
employment history);
- information provided by your referring Health Professional
and/or Medical Specialist that is necessary in the context of your
treatment;
- information provided by other third parties (such as from
a family member, authorised representative, or from an Allied
Health Professional (such as from a physiotherapist, chiropractor,
osteopath, podiatrist, dentist, nurse, etc));
- payment and administrative information (such as your
Medicare number and other individual health identifiers, Workers
Compensation insurance, Transport Accident Compensation, private
health insurance or billing details);
- information required or authorised under an Australian law
or a court/tribunal order; and/or
- any other information collected directly from you
(including verbally) when you attend our clinics/offices, write to
or call us or through our websites.
If you choose not to provide your personal
information (including sensitive (health) information) to I-MED, we
may be unable to provide you with the services you request.
How we use your personal information
I-MED will use your personal information (including sensitive
(health) information) for the purposes of:
- making an assessment of your health status
- providing a specialist medical report about your health to
your referring Health Professional and/or Medical Specialist or to
third parties (such as to a family member, authorised
representative, or Allied Health Professional, etc);
- providing your treatment and ongoing health care (unless
you have notified us otherwise);
- providing internal administrative services (such as
billing and collection of any outstanding debts);
- sending out appointment reminders;
- notifying relevant organisations (such as medical defence
organisations, insurance companies and/or legal advisors) of an
incident/accident when a claim of medical malpractice has been
alleged;
- ongoing research of specific cases for the continuing
education of professional personnel (all information is
de-identified prior to use);
- quality assurance activities, practice accreditation,
customer satisfaction surveys, market research/statistical
analysis, providing medical imaging information and complaint
handling;
- assessing and/or sourcing candidates for employment and
processing their applications; and/or
- responding to messages/enquiries you submit through our
websites.
Disclosure of your personal information
I-MED does not sell or disclose personal information (including
sensitive (health) information) about our patients to drug
companies or other health organisations/persons who are not
involved in your medical care.
I-MED will
sometimes need to use and disclose personal information (including
sensitive (health) information) about you where it is reasonably
necessary and relevant in the context of your treatment to
organisations outside of I-MED for medical, ethical, insurance,
legal and/or procedural reasons. These organisations may include:
- your referring Health Professional, nominees of your
referring Health Professional (for example employees and other
Health Professionals in your referring Health Professional's
clinic) and any 'copied to' Health Professional;
- consultant Medical Specialists or other registered Health
Professionals who inform us are involved in your ongoing health
care outside of I-MED and who have been requested to provide
further advice on your medical condition or to assist in
responding to enquiries submitted through our websites;
- hospital medical staff;
• registered Health
Professionals granted access to I-MED's secure web-based
password-protected Referrer Portal (see below);
- local and offshore contractors whom we have partnered
with, under strict confidentiality and privacy requirements,
including those that relate to cross-border disclosure, to provide
services to our business operations;
- your representative(s) (eg a guardian, carer,
translator/intermediary and/or authorised representative (such as
a family member or legal advisor));
- health services or enforcement bodies in situations where
I-MED is informed that there is a serious threat to life, health
or safety;
- insurers (such as Medicare, Workers Compensation insurer,
Transport Accident insurer or your private health fund) for the
purpose of benefits payable or other third parties for
billing/accounting purposes;
- our professional advisors (such as auditors and legal
advisors);
- government and regulatory authorities and other
organisations, as required or authorised by or under an Australian
law; and/or
- I-MED's associated entities (as that term is defined in
the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)) within our corporate group
structure.
You can contact the I-MED Privacy Officer (Company Secretary) if
you have any questions around the disclosure of your personal
information, including information about the disclosure of personal
information to offshore contractors and the countries in which our
contractors are located.
I-MED will de-identify
personal information (including sensitive (health) information)
about you for use and disclosure of that de-identified information
to organisations outside of I-MED for the purposes of analysing our
service quality and timeliness. De-identified personal information
(including sensitive (health) information) may also be used
internally for educational purposes.
Direct
marketing
We will seek your consent to our use
of your personal information for direct marketing or market
research purposes. With this consent, I-MED or authorised third
party companies may contact you for the purposes of I-MED's quality
assurance activities, customer satisfaction surveys, market
research or for providing medical imaging information. You may also
be contacted by I-MED for the compilation or analysis of statistics
comprised of, or related to, the health information that you
provide to us. When we contact you it may be via mail, phone, email
or SMS. Communications with you will include details for how you
can 'opt-out' from these communications.
You
can, however, contact the I-MED Privacy Officer (Company
Secretary), per contact details below, at any time if you do not
wish to be contacted for direct marketing or market research
purposes.
If you request not to receive direct
marketing or market research information, please note that we will
still contact you to provide you with relevant information in
respect of your ongoing health care. For example, we will continue
to send you relevant statements, invoices, reminders, notices, etc.
Accuracy of your personal information
I-MED endeavours to ensure that the personal information (including
sensitive (health) information) we collect, use and disclose is
accurate, up-to-date and complete. The accuracy and completeness of
that information depends on the information you provide to us. We
recommend that you:
- tell us if there are any errors in the information we
hold; and
- inform us of any changes to your information (such as your
name, address or Medicare number).
Access to and correction of your information
The best way to obtain your results is in consultation
with your referring Health Professional, so that they can interpret
the results and explain them to you in the context of your health
care. Your imaging findings are only one aspect of your health
assessment. Your referring Health Professional is in the best
position to discuss the imaging results and balance it with your
other examination findings and other health test results.
You may, however, request access to personal information
we hold about you. In some instances, charges may apply for the
reproduction of results or images (if available). We will inform
you of any costs before they are incurred. In some circumstances
your request may be denied for specific legal reasons as set out in
the Privacy Act, including if the request is vexatious or if a
criminal investigation is under way.
You may
also request that we correct the personal information we hold about
you if you consider it to be inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete,
irrelevant or misleading.
You may request access
to, and/or correction of, your personal information by contacting
the local I-MED clinic where your information is held. In order to
maintain the security of your personal information, confirmation of
your personal details, as well as date of last visit and type of
test taken, will generally be required before copies of information
will be supplied.
If your access or correction
request is denied, a reason will be given to you (except if it is
unreasonable to do so) and we will inform you of the mechanisms
available to complain about the refusal (see Complaints section
below).
In certain locations, I-MED provides a
confidential film delivery service. This service may be provided by
our own staff, commercial couriers, taxis or post. If this is
unacceptable to you, please arrange with our staff to collect your
own films. If you intend to have another person collect your films
on your behalf, you must provide written consent to this
collection, including the name of the person collecting your films.
Data security
All
reasonable steps are taken to protect your personal information
(including sensitive (health) information) within I-MED from
misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access,
modification or disclosure. Records are held securely for future
retrieval in accordance with applicable regulatory and legislative
requirements and good business practice. If I-MED no longer needs,
or is required, to retain information, I-MED will take reasonable
steps in the circumstances to destroy the information or will
ensure that the information is de-identified.
I-MED is subject to strict obligations under State and Territory
laws as to the retention of health information and records.
Generally, as a minimum, we retain health information as follows:
- in the case of health information collected while an
individual was an adult - for 7 years from the last occasion we
provided health services to the individual; or
- in the case of health information collected while an
individual was under the age of 18 years - until the individual
turns 25.
Our approach to privacy
I-MED
will protect your privacy by:
- only obtaining information about your health, as is
necessary for health purposes, in accordance with this Privacy
Statement or with your consent;
- keeping your health information secure;
- giving you reasonable access to the information we have
concerning you;
- not disclosing this information outside the organisation
without your consent or otherwise contrary to this Privacy
Statement, except where legally authorised or required to do so;
- allowing you to withdraw your consent at any stage;
- providing you with a simple complaints mechanism for
complaints relating to privacy issues;
- ensuring a process for working with the Office of the
Australian Privacy Commissioner to resolve any complaints that
cannot be resolved directly with you;
- providing written procedures and instructions for staff to
ensure that privacy processes are adhered to;
- ensuring I-MED's external (including offshore) contractors
comply with the Privacy Act and other relevant laws; and
- continuing to review and improve our privacy practices.
Online access by registered Health Professionals
to your medical images and reports
I-MED
provides a secure web-based password-protected Referrer Portal for
registered Health Professionals and hospital medical staff to
access patient images and reports. Your personal information
(including sensitive (health) information) (such as images and
reports) may be made available through this portal. Users of this
service are subject to an obligation to collect health information
with your consent and, in many cases, are bound by codes of
practice that deal with obligations of professional confidentiality
relevant to their profession.
Health
Professionals will apply to I-MED for a username and password in
order to access this service. Before a Health Professional is
granted online access they must accept the terms set out in a User
Access Agreement stating that the information is required in order
to provide a medical service and that it will not otherwise be used
or knowingly shared or disclosed. Our systems trace, record and
store indefinitely all access activity on every patient file.
Your personal information (including sensitive (health)
information) will be accessible online via the Referrer Portal to
your Health Professional, who I-MED records show is involved in
your care (eg to your family doctor or specialist). With your
express consent, or the express consent of another person acting
for you (such as a parent acting for a child), or in situations
where I-MED is informed that there is a serious threat to life,
health or safety, we may also provide access to other Health
Professionals. You may also elect to give express consent to I-MED
providing access to your personal information (including sensitive
(health) information) (such as images and reports) to Medical
Specialists or hospital medical staff generally.
Complaints
You can complain
about how we have treated your personal information or privacy
generally. Please send your complaint to the I-MED
Privacy Officer at the address below. Alternatively, you can
complete a Privacy Complaint Form online via our website at
i-med.com.au/privacy. The
complaint will be investigated and a response will be sent to you
as quickly as possible (generally within 30 days of receipt of the
complaint). If you are dissatisfied with the response, you can
refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Privacy
Commissioner.
Your privacy is important to I-MED.
I-MED Network Limited
Attention: Privacy Officer
(Company Secretary)
GPO Box 514, Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: (02) 8274 1000
Fax: (02) 8274 1077
Email:
privacy@i-med.com.au
2014 Privacy Statement - effective
12
March 2014. From time to time we make changes to our policy,
processes and systems in relation to how we handle your personal
information. Please visit our website
https://i-med.com.au/about-us-radiology-medical-imaging/your-privacy
to obtain a copy of the latest version of this Privacy Statement
at any time.