Privacy

FPWA is committed to maintaining privacy in accordance with the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000.

Personal Health Information

Your doctor or nurse needs information about your past and present health in order to provide you with high quality care.

This information is called "personal health information" and is defined as information that concerns your health, medical history or past or future medical care. FPWA will make sure that you are able to discuss your personal health information in private.

This information is now stored electronically in a secure medical records database. FPWA staff will take all reasonable steps to ensure your medical records:

are accurate, comprehensive, well-organised, legible and up to date;
have enough information to allow another doctor or nurse to continue treatment;
do not contain offensive or irrelevant comments about you;
contain a summary of your care; and
can be used to remind you, with your permission, to return for follow up, check ups and reviews.

FPWA staff members will only collect information that is relevant to your care. You are encouraged to ask the doctor or nurse if you are uncertain about why the information is being collected.

Anonymity

FPWA will, where lawful and practicable, give individuals the option of not identifying themselves when dealing with FPWA.

Providing Your Information To Other Doctors

The doctors and nurses at FPWA respect your right to decide how your personal health information is used or disclosed (for example to other health professionals). In all but exceptional circumstances, personal information that identifies you will be sent to other people only with your consent. Gaining your consent is the guiding principle.

At FPWA, it is customary for all doctors and nurses to have access to all the medical records. If you have any concerns about other doctors and nurses at FPWA being able to see your records discuss your concerns with your doctor or nurse.

It is important that other people involved in your care, such as other doctors or health professionals, are informed of relevant parts of your medical history so they can best care for you. Your doctor or nurse will let you know before this occurs. If you have any concerns about this discuss them with your doctor or nurse.

Providing Your Information To Others

FPWA will not disclose your personal health information to a third party unless:

you have consented to the disclosure; or
this disclosure is necessary because you are at risk of harm without treatment and you are unable to give consent; or
your doctor is legally obliged to disclose the information (e.g. notification of certain infectious diseases or
the information is necessary to obtain Medicare payments or other health insurance rebates; or
there is an overriding public health and safety interest in the release of the information.

The results of Pap smears are automatically sent to The Cervical Cytology Registry of WA. Please read their brochure ‘Use and collection of information' or visit their website www.health.wa.gov.au/cervical/ccr

Using Health Information For Quality Improvement And Research

FPWA uses client health information to assist in improving the quality of care we give to all our clients by reviewing the treatments used in the practice.

We may also use information that does not identify you in research projects to improve health care in the community. You will be informed if your information is to be used for this purpose and will have the opportunity to refuse to have your unidentified information used in this way.

Wherever practicable, the information used for research will not be in a form that would enable you to be identified. The publication of research results which use your information will never be in a form that enables you to be identified.

In some circumstances, where the research serves an important public interest, identifiable medical records can be used for medical research without your consent under guidelines issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council. This research must be approved by an official ethics committee.

Your Access To Your Health Information

You have access to the information contained in your medical record. You may ask your doctor about any aspect of your health care including information in your record. FPWA believes that sharing information is important for good communication between you and your doctor and for good health care.

Information in your record can be provided to you by way of an accurate and up to date summary of your care, for instance if you are moving away and are transferring to a new doctor. Do not hesitate to ask your doctor or nurse if you want a summary of your care for any reason. If you request a summary or direct access to your full medical record, your doctor will need to consider the risk of any physical or mental harm to you or any other person which may result from disclosure of your health information, and may need to remove any information that may impact on the privacy of other individuals.

Your doctor will be pleased to provide a full explanation of the health summary or medical record if requested in writing.

Depending on what is involved, you may be asked to contribute to the cost of providing the information.

Resolving Your Concerns Regarding The Privacy Of Your Health Information

If you have any concerns regarding the privacy of your health information or regarding the accuracy of the information held by FPWA, you should discuss these with your doctor. Inaccurate information will be corrected or your concerns noted in the records. For legal reasons, the original notes will be retained.

Further information on Privacy Legislation is available from the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner on
1300 363 992

Page last updated Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:56