Avenue Dental General Privacy Policy

Avenue Dental Patient Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement

The Avenue Dental group of dental practices (we, us, our) consider your privacy to be important. This Patient Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, hold, use and disclose information about individuals who deal or interact with us. We treat all personal information collected by us in accordance with:

• this Patient Privacy Policy; and
• the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles.

If there is any inconsistency between the Privacy Act and this Patient Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act will prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.

Your Consent

By obtaining dental, cosmetic, or any health-related services (Dental Services) from one of our practices, you consent to us collecting, processing, and using your personal information in accordance with this Patient Privacy Policy.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at [email protected].

Personal Information Collected by Us

Personal information is information or an opinion of an individual whose identity is apparent or can be reasonably ascertained. As part of our business, we may collect personal information from you.

We may collect personal information in a number of ways, including:

• through our website avenuedental.com.au and its subdomains (our Site);
• through our external online booking agent’s website praktika.net.au and/or praktika.com.au as they relate to our businesses;
• in providing Dental Services to you;
• from your parent, legal guardian, or other responsible person;
• from your healthcare providers (e.g. general practitioner, diagnostic imaging services);
• from your private health insurer, Medicare, or the Department of Veteran Affairs (if applicable);
• by otherwise having some form of contact with you, such as by personal contact, mail, telephone, email, video teleconferencing, Internet or other forms of telecommunication;

may include:

• your name;
• your title;
• your date of birth;
• your family contact information (i.e. next of kin, emergency contact/s);
• your contact details (including street address, postal address, email address, phone number and fax number);
• details of your oral health and any Dental Services you have received in the past from us or third parties;
• details of your general health and medical history that are relevant to our provision of Dental Services to you, including but not limited to your medical conditions, medications you are taking, and allergies;
• your Medicare card details, and other healthcare identifiers;
• transactional information (including your method of payment);
• details of your private health insurance;
• details of any other funding methods, including but not limited to, Child Dental Benefits Schedule, Department of Veteran Affairs;
• details of any relevant workers’ compensation and other insurance claims;
• details of your general practitioner and other relevant medical or dental specialists.

Except as otherwise noted above, we endeavour to only collect personal information about you from you, where it is reasonable and practical to do so.

Right to Anonymity and Pseudonymity

You have a right to engage with us on an anonymous or pseudonymous basis, except where there are practical reasons for us to require your real name, or where we are required by law to identify you.

Use of Personal Information

We collect personal information for the primary purpose of providing Dental Services to you. We may also use your personal information for business activities which directly relate to the provision of Dental Services, including but not limited to:

• financial claims and payments, including private health insurance claims;
• improving our Dental Services, and other products and services, and patient satisfaction;
• internal business operations (including legal compliance, staff training, practice accreditation, and practice audits); and
• internal research and statistical purposes;
• general marketing purposes, but only with de-identified or aggregated information; and
• enabling us to forward to you other information or material which you have indicated you may be interested in receiving, subject to your right to opt-out of such communications at any time.

Sometimes you will be asked to confirm that you agree to a particular activity, or the collection of your personal information for a specific purpose.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We do not disclose your personal information to any third party, except:

• to persons requiring this information in connection with our provision of Dental Services to you (such as our staff); or
• to external healthcare service providers (e.g. medical and dental specialists, diagnostic imaging services, denture labs, etc.);
• to other organisations and businesses within our group of organisations;
• as permitted or required under the Privacy Act or any other applicable law;
• with your consent; and
• if you would reasonably expect that your personal information would be passed to the person to whom the personal information is disclosed.

Protecting Your Personal Information

We take reasonable steps to protect all personal information which we hold (including your personal information) from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

The precautionary steps we take to protect personal information may include:

• adopting measures to protect our computer systems and networks for storing, processing and transmitting personal information;
• adoption of procedural and personnel measures for limiting access to personal information by our staff;
• regularly reviewing our information collection, storage and processing practices;
• secured encrypted servers, password protection for electronic files, multifactor authentication procedures, securing paper files in locked cabinets and physical access restrictions.

We also take steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate, up-to-date and complete. These steps may include maintaining and updating personal information when it is apparent that updating is required, or we are otherwise advised by you that your personal information has changed.

Overseas Disclosure

We may disclose personal information to outsourced information technology service providers, including practice management software providers, online appointment booking service providers, cloud computing providers and data storage providers, based overseas primarily located in the United States of America.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure such overseas recipients do not breach the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act (APPs), or are subject to laws or a scheme substantially similar to the APPs.

Accessing and Managing Your Personal Information

Right to Access

You have a right, at all times, to obtain from confirmation from us as to whether or not your personal information is being processed by us, where such processing is occurring, and for what purpose.

We will provide you with access to your personal information held by us, unless:

• giving access would be unlawful; or
• denying access is required under any applicable law.

If you wish to access your personal information, please contact us at [email protected].

Amendment of Personal Information

If you wish to amend personal information that we hold, please contact us at [email protected] to request amendment. Depending upon the personal information you seek to access, you may be asked:

• to put your request in writing with evidence to verify your identity; and/or
• to provide further details to assist us in responding to your request in a timely manner.

We will respond to a request for access to personal information within a reasonable period after the request is made (or such other period required by law).

If we elect not to correct your information, we will within a reasonable time (or such other period required by law) notify you of the reason for our refusal, the mechanisms available for you to complain about our refusal and such other matters required by the applicable privacy legislation.

Release or Transfer of Records

You have a right, at all times, to require us to provide a copy of your personal information to you, and have such personal information transferred to another party nominated by you.

If you wish to have your personal transferred, we may require you to complete a transfer or records or release of records form.

We will take all reasonable steps to comply with any such request, unless we are required by law to refuse your request.

Complaints

We strive to ensure our compliance with this Patient Privacy Policy and to regularly review our practices under it.

If at any time you have a complaint against us regarding our Patient Privacy Policy, including a breach of the Privacy Act, we invite you to contact us at [email protected]. All complaints made will be dealt with in confidence. We endeavour to respond within 30 days of receipt of a complaint with a resolution or proposed resolution of the issue raised.

Please note that you may also make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) about the handling of your personal information. Information on making a privacy complaint can be found on the OAIC Website.

Variations

We reserve the right to vary this Patient Privacy Policy from time to time without further notice to you. Any variations made will be updated on our Services. We will not reduce your rights under this Patient Privacy Policy without using our best endeavours to first provide you with notice. It is your responsibility to check our Patient Privacy Policy every now and again to ensure that you are aware of any changes made to it.

Further Information

For any further information about this Patient Privacy Policy please contact us at [email protected].

November 2022