Thank you for accessing this Privacy Policy.
We are Perth Hills Speech Pathology (ABN: 41662996501) of 26 Kobus Heights, Roleystone, Western Australia, 6111, Australia.
What is this policy about?
We are committed to protecting your privacy in your dealings with us.
This policy explains how we manage personal information, what kinds of personal information we hold, why we hold it, and how we collect, store and handle it.
Like most private health businesses in WA, we are bound by both the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (including the Australian Privacy Principles)(together, the Privacy Laws). This Policy is intended to reflect our obligations under the Privacy Laws.
Copies of these policies are available at request of the business owner.
When we refer to “clients” below, we mean both former and current clients, as well as people who make inquiries about our products and services (i.e. potential clients).
What kinds of personal information do we collect and hold?
“Personal information” means information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained. To provide evidence-based speech pathology services to our clients, we need to know personal information about them and others, including:
o names, ages, genders, and other identifying information;
o Medicare and health fund details (including Medicare numbers and health fund insurers and the extent of their coverage);
o developmental, medical, ethnic, language, cultural and social histories (including medications, diagnoses, surgeries, and allergies);
o disabilities and impairments;
o family histories, to the extent they may be relevant to our assessment, diagnosis and/or treatment of clients;
o work and education histories;
o hobbies, motivations, interests, and activities in which clients and their families participate; and
o financial information concerning the ability of clients to pay for our products and services.
For sensitive information – such as information about your health that is reasonably necessary for us to provide you with services or products – we will seek your consent.
How do we collect personal information?
We collect personal information by telephone (e.g. when you first call us to book an appointment for yourself or your child), via our website, pages on our social media sites (e.g. on our Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn sites), through our client questionnaires (which are usually filled in by a client or carer as part of our assessment process), by written letters, reports and other documents (e.g. through doctors reports you provide to us), through emails, sms and other forms of electronic communication, and in interviews and other interactions in our clinic (including face-to-face interviews and interviews conducted electronically, such as by way of Zoom or Google Forms).
Who do we collect personal information from?
We collect personal information from clients or someone authorised to act on a client’s behalf (e.g. their parents, carers or guardians). Wherever practicable, we will ask for the information directly. However, we may need to contact others when relevant to a client’s circumstances (e.g. when working with clients who cannot communicate their needs without the assistance of others). In these cases, we will, where practicable, make you aware of the fact that we have collected this information and the circumstances of the collection.
When you give us information about other people, we rely on you to have obtained their prior consent and on you to tell them of the types of third parties we may provide the information to and why.
Why do we collect personal information?
We collect personal information to deliver, review and improve the products and services that we provide. Generally, these services and products relate to speech-language pathology. If we didn’t collect this information, we wouldn’t be able to carry out of business or provide our products and services to you in accordance with the standards required by law and the Speech Pathology Australia Code of Ethics. If you do not provide the personal information that we request, we would not be able to carry out our business and provide our products or services to you.
More specifically, we need personal information (including health information) to provide clients with assessment, diagnosis and management services and products related to their speech, language, voice, fluency, swallowing/feeding, and/or literacy-related issues, and/or multi-modal communication. We also need this information:
o for administrative purposes of managing our business;
o when necessary, to fulfil our obligations under law, regulation and/or Speech Pathology Australia’s Code of Ethics;
o for billing management (either directly or through insurers or other compensation agencies);
o discussions between speech pathologists and others working at our clinic (including other speech pathologists and sub-contractors) related to the care of clients;
o discussions and other communications with your doctors, other health professionals, and education professionals in relation to your care;
o discussions with insurers; and
o any insurance or compensation or other claims or litigation (including threatened litigation).
From time to time, we may use personal information (but not sensitive health information) to provide you with news or offers about our products or services that may be of interest to you. These products and services will be related to our speech pathology business described above and will be products and services that we believe will be relevant to you. You have a right, at any time, to tell us that you don’t want to receive this type of material.
Can people access our products and services anonymously?
No. Due to the nature of our services and products, we cannot offer them to people who wish to be anonymous, wish to use a pseudonym or who do not provide us with enough information to properly identify them for the purposes of providing services and products.
Who will see or have access to your personal information?
Your information may be seen or used by people working for or on behalf of Perth Hills Speech Pathology and other service providers including (without limitation):
o our directors and shareholders;
o our speech pathologists (employed or contracted);
o our administrative staff (employed or contracted);
o doctors, other health professionals, and education professionals;
o our third-party professional advisors and service providers, including (without limitation) our lawyers, book-keepers, accountants, auditors, tax consultants, actuaries, management consultants and IT service providers (including software-as-a-service provider); and
o Medicare, private health insurance providers, our insurers and reinsurers.
We will not rent, sell, trade or otherwise disclose to any other third parties any personal information about you without your consent, or unless we are required by law (including pursuant to a court or tribunal order), or where a permitted general situation (including a permitted health situation) exists within the meaning of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), or if we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary for enforcement-related activities.
Important note: To promote the safety, welfare and wellbeing of vulnerable children in WA, the Children and Community Services Act 2004 (WA) requires WA speech pathologists who are members of Speech Pathology Australia to take reasonable steps to proactively exchange information, and co-ordinate the delivery of services, with WA Health, schools, non-government organisations, the Family and Federal Courts, the police and other prescribed bodies in WA. These obligations generally override confidentiality and privacy rights.
Security of your personal information and data retention
We know that you are concerned about your personal information – especially your health information. We will use reasonable endeavours to prevent unauthorised access to, modification of, disclosure, misuse or loss of that information as required by law.
Our directors and staff have reviewed the requirements of the Privacy Laws and our third-party service providers have been made aware that they are required to comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
We have data protection measures in place (including password-locked computers) when we store personal information electronically. Our hard copy health records are stored in a locked filing cabinet on site accessible only to authorised staff.
Access to and accuracy of your personal information
We take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information we collect about or from you is accurate, complete, up-to-date and relevant whenever it is used, collected or disclosed. Subject to the recognised exceptions to access for organisations contained in the Australian Privacy Principles (APP12.3), you have a right to access you information if you wish (subject to any privilege or legal restrictions); and, if it is reasonable and practicable to do so, we will give you access to the information in the manner requested by you. By law, we may charge you a reasonable fee to cover the cost of retrieving and processing the information.
If you believe personal information that we hold about you is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete or misleading, we will, on receipt of your request, take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to correct the information.
What happens if personal information is disclosed outside Australia?
Given the increasing globalisation of electronic information systems and the businesses of service providers, it is likely that personal information may be disclosed to a person or entity outside Australia (e.g. to a third-party service provider managed outside Australia). For the same reason, it is not practicable to specify the countries in which such recipients may be located.
If your personal information is disclosed by us to an overseas recipient (e.g. to an insurer or IT-service provider), we will take reasonable steps in the circumstances to ensure the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the information.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Complaints
If you believe your privacy has been prejudiced by something we have done or failed to do, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint.
If you have any queries about our privacy policy please contact us at
26 Kobus Heights, Roleystone, WA, 6111
Last updated: October, 2019.