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.

Why and when your consent is necessary

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 (Cth) applies.

Why do we collect, use, hold and share your personal information?

Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide dental services 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 health insurance claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).

What personal information do we collect?

The information we will collect about you includes your:

• name/s, date of birth, address/es, contact details (e.g. telephone, email), family contact information
• details of your oral health condition and the treatment/s and service/s you have received
• details of your general health (e.g. medications, allergies, medical conditions) and medical history that may impact the dental treatment you receive
• private health insurance information
• Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
• information regarding other funding sources, where relevant (e.g. Child Dental Benefits Schedule, Department of Veterans’ Affairs)
• information on workers’ compensation, motor vehicle and other accident claims, where relevant
• healthcare identifiers, where relevant.

How do we collect your personal information?

Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways.

1. When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal information via your registration.
2. During the course of providing dental services, we may collect further personal information.
3. We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media.
4. In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is because it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:
   1. your guardian or responsible person
   2. other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists and diagnostic imaging services
   3. your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).

When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?

We sometimes share your personal information:

• with other healthcare providers
• when it is required or authorised by law (e.g. court subpoenas)
• when it is 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 confidential dispute resolution process
• when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (e.g. some diseases require mandatory notification)
• with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as dental software technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with Australian Privacy Principles

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.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.  We may hold your information in either electronic or hard copy form.  Personal information is destroyed or de-identified when no longer needed to perform our functions, except where it is retained for longer periods to comply with legislative requirements for document retention.

We also maintain computer and network security by various means including using firewalls and other security measures such as user identifiers and passwords to control access to our computer system.

As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online.  We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.

How can you access and correct your personal information at our practice?

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 reception@dentalatlennox.com.au and our practice will respond within a reasonable time.

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 reception@dentalatlennox.com.au

Dealing with us anonymously

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.

How can you lodge a privacy-related complaint, and how will the complaint be handled at our practice?

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.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any concerns or a complaint regarding privacy or a possible breach of your privacy, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details set out below:

Mail

The Privacy Officer

Dental at Lennox

2/48 Ballina Street

Lennox Head NSW 2478

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 a reasonable time 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.

Privacy and our website

Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties.  We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third-party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third-party website.  Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any website you encounter to learn more about the privacy practices of that website.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies, tracking pixels and related technologies. Cookies are small data files that are served by our platform and stored on your device. Our site uses cookies dropped by us or third parties for a variety of purposes including to operate and personalise the website. Also, cookies may also be used to track how you use the site to target ads to you on other websites.

In addition, cookies used by this site may also be used for:

• Recording preferences that you specify on our websites
• Providing general visitor and customer analytics for internal reference
• Conducting research to improve our content, products and online services
• Assisting with direct marketing, should you opt-in for this service

If you do not wish to receive cookies you may disable these in your web browser, however please note that doing so may affect our sites’ ability to function properly. See the ‘Help’ section of your web browser for more information on changing your cookie preferences.

You can also opt-out directly through updating your preferences with Google and Facebook.

We may log IP addresses (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer the website, provide relevant content to users, monitor fraudulent activity, and gather broad demographic information

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur.