Patient privacy is important to The Dentists @ Belmore.
The Dentists @ Belmore is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) and endeavours to uphold the Australian Privacy Principles in collecting, disclosing, maintaining and securing personal and health information. We will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to protect your personal and health information from:
- Misuse, interference and loss, and
- Unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
The Dentists @ Belmore requires your consent to collect personal and health information about you.
Why do we collect information?
The Dentists @ Belmore collects relevant personal and health information from you for the primary purpose of providing quality dental care and treatment.
What information do we collect?
The Dentists @ Belmore may collect and store the following types of personal and health information:
- Name
- Date of Birth
- Contact Details - postal and/or street address; email address/es; telephone number/s
- Family contact information
- Private health insurance information
- Information regarding other funding sources, where relevant (e.g. Child Dental Benefits Schedule, Department of Veteran’s Affairs)
- Medicare number
- Information on workers compensation, motor vehicle and other accident claims, where relevant
- Details of your oral health condition and the treatment/s and service/s you have received
- Details of your general health (e.g. allergies, medications, medical conditions) and medical history that may impact the treatment you receive.
Can you refuse to disclose your information?
You have the right to refuse to provide your information. If you choose not to provide relevant personal and/or health information it may, however, affect you receiving appropriate care and treatment.
How will we use your information?
The Dentists @ Belmore may use your personal and/or health information to:
- Assess your oral health
- Provide dental treatments and services to you
- Communicate with other service providers (e.g. specialist dentists, technicians, laboratories) to provide dental treatments and services to you
- Send communications requested by you
- Assist with queries you make and provide information and advice about related treatments and services
- Process payments for treatment – including private health insurance and/or Medicare claims
- Update our records and keep your contact details up to date
- Resolve complaints
- Carry out internal functions such as administration, accounting and information technology
We may also use your personal and/or health information for staff training, professional development, treatment or service development, practice planning, quality improvement and dental health research. We will use de-identified data for these purposes, unless you consent to being identified.
If we need to use your information for any other purpose, 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.
To whom may we disclose your information?
Only people who need to be able to access your information will be able to do so. The Dentists @ Belmore may disclose your information to:
- Our dentists and practice staff – to support the provision of dental treatments and services to you
- Others involved in your dental care outside this practice (e.g. specialists, technicians, laboratories)
- Your nominated relatives in an emergency
- Government and regulatory bodies (e.g. Medicare)
- Third party health benefit providers and insurance companies to assist in the processing of claims for payment/reimbursement
- Third parties who work with our practice for business purposes
- Third parties where this is required to comply with a court/tribunal order or to meet other legislative or regulatory requirements.
Accessing your personal and health information
You may inspect or request copies of your records at any time.
Altering your personal and health information
If any of the information we have about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, you may ask us to alter our records.