Your Personal Health Information
“Nuvo Health is committed to ensuring our patient’s personal information is professionally manager in accordance with all Australian Privacy Principles (current as of 12/12/2022).
Our Privacy Policy is revised on regular basis in line with the OAIC legislation.
Your doctor needs information about your past and present health to provide you with high quality care. This practice will ensure you are able to discuss your health with your doctor in private.
This practice follows the guidelines of the “Handbook for the Management of Health Information in Private Medical Practice”. The Handbook was produced by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. The Handbook incorporates the provisions of Federal and State Privacy Legislation. This means that your personal health information is kept private and secure.
Your Medical Records
Your doctor will do his/her best to ensure your medical records:
- are accurate, comprehensive, well-organised and legible:
- are up to date.
- have enough information to allow another doctor to care for you;
- do not contain offensive or irrelevant comments about you;
- contain a summary of your care; and
- can be used to remind you, with your permission, to return for follow up, check-ups and reviews.
- Have a summary uploaded onto your My Health record unless you request otherwise
Your doctor will only collect information which is relevant to your medical care. If you are uncertain as to why information is being requested, ask your doctor.
If you want access to health care services and want to maintain your anonymity, ask your doctor.
Providing your information to other doctors
The doctor(s) in this practice respect your right to decide how your personal health information is used or disclosed (for example to other doctors). In all but exceptional circumstances, personal information that identifies you will be sent to other people only with your consent. We asked you to sign consent at the time of joining this practice for this reason. In this practice, it is customary for all doctors to have access to all the medical records. If you have any concerns about other doctors at this practice being able to see your records, discuss your concerns with your doctor.
Providing your information to others
Your doctor will not disclose your personal health information to a third party unless:
- you have consented to the disclosure: or
- this disclosure is necessary because you are at risk of harm without treatment, and you are unable to give consent – for example you might be unconscious after an accident; or
- your doctor is legally obliged to disclose the information (eg, notification of certain infectious diseases or suspected child abuse, or a subpoena or court order); or
- the information is necessary to obtain Medicare payments or other health insurance rebates.
- or there is an overriding public health and safety interest in the release of the information.
There are times when disclosure is necessary for the doctors in the practice to carry out a review of their practice for the purpose of improving the quality of care provided and the activity has been approved under Commonwealth or State legislation. This provides safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the information provided.
In any of the above cases only information which is necessary to achieve the objective will be provided.
Using health information for quality improvement and research
We use patient health information to assist in improving the quality of care we give to all our patients by reviewing the treatments used in the practice.
Security of information in the practice
We will ensure your personal information on the computer will be kept private in the same way as occurs with paper records. This will protect your record from unauthorised access.
Your access to your health information
You have access to the information contained in your medical record. You may ask your doctor about any aspect of your health care including information in your record. We believe that sharing information is important for good communication between you and your doctor and for good health care.
Information in your record can be provided to you by way of an accurate and up to date summary of your care, for instance if you are moving away and are transferring to a new doctor. Do not hesitate to ask your doctor if you want a summary of your care for any reason. If you request a summary or direct access to your full medical record, your doctor will need to consider the risk of any physical or mental harm to you or any other person which may result from disclosure of your health information and may need to remove any information that may impact on the privacy of other individuals.
Your doctor will be pleased to provide a full explanation of the health summary or medical record provided.
Depending on what is involved, you may be asked to contribute to the cost of providing the information.
Resolving your concerns regarding the privacy of your health information
If you have any concerns regarding the privacy of your health information or regarding the accuracy of the information held by the practice, you should discuss these with your doctor. Inaccurate information will be corrected or your concerns noted in the records. For legal reasons, the original notes will be retained.
Further information on Privacy Legislation & My Health Record is available from: www.myhealthrecord.gov.au
Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner
1300 363 992
Office of the NSW Privacy Commissioner
02 9268 5588