Protecting Your Privacy
At Garden View Nursing Home, we value your privacy and understand its importance. As a healthcare provider, we collect your information to ensure that we provide the best possible care and services to our clients, and to comply with government regulatory requirements.
To protect your personal information, we strictly adhere to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), as well as applicable State and Territory legislation. This means that we are committed to properly using, safeguarding, correcting, and destroying (or de-identifying) records containing personal information.
Our Privacy & Collection Statement outlines the purpose for which we collect and use your personal information, the measures in place to prevent unauthorized access, and how you can access this information.
Data Collection Policy
At Garden View Nursing Home, we only gather personal information if it is necessary for our functions or activities. If we are providing you with a health service or if it is essential for our activities and functions, we will gather health information, which falls under personal information. We collect this information to offer you the most appropriate care and services. Examples of such information are your name, contact details, date of birth, health and family history, signature, financial details, ethnic background, and person responsible details.
We prefer to collect this information directly from you, and we strive to ensure that all of it is accurate and up-to-date. In an emergency or if it is not feasible to gather information directly from you, we may need to rely on your designated person responsible. In some cases, we may also need to acquire information from healthcare professionals who have treated you to provide the best possible care for your needs.
The Privacy Act allows individuals to use a pseudonym if they wish to remain anonymous. However, if it is impractical for Garden View Nursing Home to deal with an unidentified person, we may need to request that you identify yourself.
If you would prefer that we do not collect specific information about you, please inform us, and we will discuss any potential implications for your care. Garden View Nursing Home has consent forms that provide more detailed information about the particular personal information we collect. If you are requested to complete a consent form, you have the chance to specify any restrictions on the information we keep that pertains to you.
Storage and Protection
Garden View Nursing Home is committed to keeping your personal information secure. Your data may be maintained in electronic or physical files, as well as other mediums such as audio or visual recordings. We take every necessary precaution to guarantee that your records are safely stored, using recognized security and storage practices.
By law, we are required to retain certain records for a designated period of time, depending on the record’s type and service, even after you have discontinued your care or service. Garden View Nursing Home follows secure protocols when destroying records at the end of their retention period. For more information regarding these retention periods, please contact our Information and Records Management staff through the Privacy Officer.
Use and Disclosure
At Garden View Nursing Home, we value the privacy of your personal and health information. We ensure that your data is only used or disclosed for the following purposes:
- The primary purpose for which you have provided the information
- A secondary purpose related (and in the case of health information, directly related) to the primary purpose of collection
- A purpose for which you have consented
- A purpose that is permitted by the law
- Sharing information with your person responsible, your Medical Practitioner or other health services involved in your care, unless you request otherwise
- Billing or other purposes required for the operation of Garden View Nursing Home including safety & quality improvement initiatives. This may include Medicare, health funds and government bodies
- Contacting you regarding client satisfaction surveys that help us to evaluate and improve our services
- In an emergency where your life is at risk
- For other purposes permitted or required by law
Some examples of how we may use or disclose your information include engaging third-party service providers to support our internal operations. This may require the storage of your personal data overseas, including in the United States. In such cases, we take reasonable measures to ensure that these providers do not breach the APPs and maintain the confidentiality of any personal information. We may also use your personal information for public health research purposes, but only in summary form and after removing any personal identifiers.
Accessing Your Records
Your personal and health information is accessible to you, your legal representative, authorized Garden View Nursing Home staff, and your designated medical practitioner and pharmacist.
To obtain access to this information, you or your legal representative must submit a written request and provide relevant identification. This is necessary to ensure the safety and privacy of your information.
Please note that access to your personal records may be declined in certain situations prescribed by applicable legislation. For example, if your medical practitioner and Garden View Nursing Home concur that access would jeopardize your physical or mental health, or the safety of another individual.
If you believe that any of the information we have about you is incorrect, please inform us immediately so that we can verify and rectify the information accordingly.
Consent to Use Your Information
When you provide your personal information, you consent to its use in accordance with this statement.