Privacy Policy

Dr John Ozmen respects your rights to privacy and takes privacy obligations seriously. The practice complies with the Australian Privacy Principles, found under the Privacy Act 1988
(Cth) (Privacy Act).

When you first register as a patient, our Patient Registration Form requests your consent so that we can collect, use, hold and share your personal information in order to provide you with high quality healthcare and to allow us to manage our practice. If we intend to use your personal information for any other purpose, we will seek your consent first.

This privacy policy explains:

how we manage your personal information (including your health information), including the collection, use, disclosure, quality and security of your personal information.
the kinds of information we collect and how that information is held;
the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information;
how you can access your personal information and how you can request to correct such information; and
how you can complain about a breach of your privacy and how we will handle your complaint.

If you have any queries, concerns or feedback regarding our Privacy Policy, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Collection

Dr John Ozmen or his practice representative collects information which is necessary to provide you with specialist medical services. This includes collecting personal information and such as your name and contact details, medical history, family history, past and current treatments, lifestyle factors and any other information which is necessary to assist Dr John Ozmen in providing appropriate care. The practice will also collect your Medicare number and health fund details (where applicable).

You have the right to deal with the practice 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. It is important to be aware that if you provide incomplete or inaccurate information or withhold information we may not be able to provide you with specialist medical services.

Dr John Ozmen will usually collect your personal information directly from you, including from patient consent forms, medical records and consultations with you, or from another health service provider. Sometimes the practice will need to collect information about you from third parties, such as relatives and friends and private health insurers.

We will only collect information from third parties where:

you have consented to such collection; or
such collection is necessary to enable us to provide you with appropriate healthcare services (such as emergency medical treatment or where your health is at risk);
such collection is reasonably necessary to enable us to appropriately manage and conduct our business; or
it is legally permissible for us to do.

Dr John Ozmen outsources the administration and management of his practice to an Australian-based administrative service who assist with the collection and management of your personal information. This service is VMORE (Australian Based Specialist Medical Secretarial Service) www.vmore.com.au

Use

Dr John Ozmen only uses your personal information to provide you with healthcare services, to facilitate the provision of healthcare services by other providers, or to enable us to appropriately manage and conduct our business, unless:

there is a secondary purpose which directly relates to the primary purpose, and you would reasonably expect, or Dr John Ozmen’s practice has informed you, that your information will be used for that secondary purpose, or you have given your consent for your personal information to be used for a secondary purpose;
the disclosure of your information is necessary for the enforcement of criminal law or a law imposing a penalty or sanction, or for the protection of public revenue;
the disclosure of your information will prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to somebody’s life or health; or,
Dr John Ozmen is required or authorised by law to disclose your information for another purpose.

For example, Dr John Ozmen uses your personal information:

to provide healthcare services to you;
to appropriately manage the practice, such as conducting audits and undertaking accreditation processes, manage billings and training support staff;
effectively communicate with third parties, including private health insurers, Medicare Australia and other government departments; and

Disclosure

Dr John Ozmen may disclose your personal information to employees, contractors and service providers in order for him to provide healthcare services to you and to allow him to manage his business. The practice will also disclose your personal information to healthcare professionals directly involved in your treatment. Where your medical records are required in the case of a medical emergency, the practice will provide these to the relevant medical professional without waiting for your consent, where Dr John Ozmen believes this is in your interests.

Your personal information may also be provided to third parties if Dr John Ozmen is legally obliged to do so by a court subpoena, statutory authority, search warrant, coronial summons or to defend a legal action. Dr John Ozmen may provide your personal information to third parties involved in your care, such as:

parents, children, relatives and guardians or a person exercising a power of attorney or enduring power of attorney. Please advise us if it is your wish no third party as stated is to have access to your personal information;
government departments and agencies, such as Defence or Department of Veterans Affairs, or departments responsible for health, aged care and disability where we are required to do so;
private health insurers and Medicare Australia; and o anyone authorised by you to receive your personal information.

Overseas recipients

Dr John Ozmen does not engage with any overseas entities or persons where your personal information will be transferred, stored or disclosed. Should the practice wish to transfer your personal information overseas, we will ask for your consent before we do so.

Storage, quality and security

Dr John Ozmen strives to maintain the reliability, accuracy, completeness and currency of the personal information held and to protect its privacy and security. All personal information, whether stored as a hard copy or in electronic form is protected from unauthorised access, misuse, interference, loss, modification or disclosure. Some of the steps we take to ensure your personal information is secure include:

maintaining physical security over our paper and electronic data and premises;
staff are trained on privacy and we have detailed internal processes and systems to protect your privacy;
IT security includes virus controls, firewalls, encryption, user identifiers and passwords to control access to computer systems where your information is stored and other IT security measures;
a clean desk policy and any physical records are stored in a locked medical records room; and
use an Australian hosted data centre to store and back-up our data. This is managed by professional IT consultants and we have written agreements with them which includes requirements for backup, security and that they abide by the Australian Privacy Principles.

The website and email is linked to the internet. No data transfer over the internet is 100% secure. Accordingly, any information which you transmit to us online or via email is transmitted at your own risk.

Destroying your personal information

Subject to applicable laws, Dr John Ozmen. may destroy records containing personal information when the record is no longer required. It is likely your medical records held by us contain sensitive information. We are required to abide by relevant legislation in the retention and disposal of your medical record

Accessing your personal information

Please contact the practice if you have a query regarding your personal information. You may request an amendment to your personal information if you consider that it contains inaccurate, incorrect or incomplete information.

You have a right to request access to any information Dr John Ozmen holds about you. If you make a request to access personal information that you are entitled to access, the practice will provide you suitable means of accessing it. The practice will not charge you for making the request. In circumstances where you request the Dr John Ozmen provide a copy of your personal information to you, there may be charge to cover reasonable costs for complying with the request for access.

There may be instances where Dr John Ozmen cannot grant you access to some of the information we hold. For example, Dr John Ozmen may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others. If that is the case, he will provide you with a written explanation of those reasons.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about how the practice has dealt with your personal information or believe the practice has breached your privacy, please contact the practice on the details below so that we may investigate it. Dr John Ozmen will deal with your complaint fairly and confidentially. On receipt of your complaint, the Practice Manager will contact you within 10 business days to confirm what investigation action will occur. The Practice Manager. will then communicate the outcome to you in writing and invite a response to our conclusion about the complaint. If the practice receives a response from you, we will also assess it and advise if we have changed our view.

If you are unsatisfied with our response, you may make refer the complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (http://www.oaic.gov.au/)

You can contact us about any privacy issues as follows: