Privacy Policy

Privacy

RADCARE respects and upholds individuals’ rights to privacy and rights to their personal information

Ravenshoe Rural and Remote Aged and Disabled Care Inc. (RADCARE) is committed to the principles outlined in the Privacy Act 1988 and the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 and has in place procedures that ensure compliance with this legislation, including the protection of sensitive information including health information.

This policy outlines the ways in which RADCARE Inc. collects, uses, discloses, stores, secures, manages and disposes of your Personal Information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (“the APP’s”).

Primary purpose for collection of information

The primary purpose for collecting personal and sensitive information is to assist us in your assessment for and delivery of RADCARE services and to ensure delivery of optimum services that are tailored to meet your individual needs and supports. The provision of this information is voluntary but if this information is not provided RADCARE may be unable to process your service requirements.

How we collect and hold your personal information

We will collect the majority of your Personal Information from you directly. We may also however obtain your Personal Information from:

We only collect information that is relevant and necessary to the provision of your services and support.

The Purpose for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information:

RADCARE will only collect, hold, use and disclose personal information when it is relevant to your care and services, applying for funding, provision of services including managing, monitoring and reviewing of services in accordance with the guidelines established by the Aged Care Act and Principles.

The information is required to ensure that we can deliver appropriate, timely and quality services to you.

Some of this information is also required to comply with government legislation (Aged Care Act and Principles, Home Care Guidelines and NRCP Guidelines) and reporting requirements to funding bodies e.g. The Department of Human Services.

Disclosure of personal information to others:

To provide optimum care and services RADCARE will need to disclose information when necessary to:

Relevant staff at RADCARE
Aged Care Assessment Team
Department of Human Services ( for reporting and statistics)
Government officials (or their delegates) in the conduct of quality reviews or the investigation of complaints.
Your General Practitioner, specialists and Allied Health practitioners
Relevant health professionals
Relevant family members and close friends as nominated by you or your representative
In an emergency to Emergency Services such as Ambulance, Fire Brigade, Police and SES (to provide emergency care or services)
Hospitals (for admittance and discharge purposes
Residential Facilities

Most of the above will have obligations of professional confidentiality.

Access to individual personal information

You can request access to all your personal information held by RADCARE by contacting the Manager either by phone or in writing. Upon receipt of such a request RADCARE will ensure that the request is handled in a timely manner (within 30 days of the request). You can nominate a representative to access your records held by RADCARE.

There may be instances were access is denied to certain records or aspects of records in accordance with the APPs. Generally, if requested, an individual will be provided access to any personal information held about them, unless the “exceptions to access” 12.2 and 12.3 in the Australian Privacy Principles apply.

Cross-border disclosure of personal information and Direct Marketing

RADCARE will not transfer your personal information to third parties outside Australia nor do we engage in direct marketing.

Information we collect, use and store

To ensure the delivery of optimum services, we usually collect the following types of personal information:

Your name and contact details (including address, telephone number and email address)
Health status and services provided.
Clinical care information
Relevant demographic and social information, such as date of birth.
Name and contact of any carers or relevant family members.
Name and contact number of your general practitioner and other relevant health care providers
Financial institution information
Government- related identifiers (including but not limited to Medicare, Veterans’ Affairs, Centrelink)

Data security

RADCARE strives to ensure the security, integrity, and privacy of your personal information. Periodically we review and update our security measures in relation to current and future technologies. Systems and procedures are already in place to protect your personal information from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access modification or disclosure. Files holding your personal information will be securely stored at our office in locked filing cabinets and on our computers which have security passwords. Access to these files is limited to personnel who have the responsibility of your care or have the legal right to your records.

RADCARE will retain information in line with its record retention policies. When information is no longer required it will be disposed of in a secure manner.

Consent:

RADCARE is permitted to collect your personal information (including sensitive information) as part of its functions as a not for profit Home Care Provider. However, using and disclosing your personal information requires consent where it is practical and reasonable to do so. As such, prior to you becoming a RADCARE client our Privacy Policy will be discussed with you and you will be requested to provide your consent to the use and disclosure of personal information collected from you for the purpose of providing optimum care. You (or your representative or advocate) will be asked to sign a Consent Form which details who you ( or they) wish information to be obtained from and which relevant groups and individuals information can be released to.

You are advised that you can withdraw consent to share personal information at any time.

Use of contractors

At times RADCARE may use contractors to provide aspects of care and services to clients. Contractors are required to abide by the same confidentiality and privacy requirements as RADCARE employees and this is clearly stated within non-disclosure clauses in their contract.

There may be disclosures of personal information where there is a change of contractors, in which case personal information may be transferred to a new contractor. We may also disclose your personal information in seeking assistance and advice from lawyers, auditors, data support specialists and other advisors who are bound by confidentiality obligations to us.

Keeping information up to date and accurate

You have the right to have corrected any of your personal information which may be incorrect, incomplete or out of date. RADCARE makes every effort to keep your personal information up to date and accurate. This may mean that at times our staff will review or test the personal information held and request verification as to its accuracy.

You may request that any incorrect or out of date information held is corrected by RADCARE and we will take all reasonable steps to assess and correct any personal information that is believed to be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

Privacy concerns, complaints and suggestions:

RADCARE is committed to adhering to the Australian Privacy Principles and protection of an individual’s right to privacy.

If you have any concerns, suggestions or questions as to how we might improve this area please contact the RADCARE Privacy Officer at the address below.

You should contact RADCARE immediately if you feel that the Privacy Laws have been breached or if you have a complaint or dispute regarding our privacy policy or the management of your personal information. We will respond to your complaint within 5 working days. Where a complaint requires investigation our Privacy Officer will seek to provide the findings of the investigation and discuss these with you within 10 working days. If you are not satisfied with RADCARE’s response to your complaint you can complain about a privacy matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

RADCARE Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 672
Ravenshoe 4888
Phone 40977263
Fax 40976274
Email: wecare@radcare.com.au

Office of Australian Information Commissioner
G.P.O. 5218
Sydney 2001
Phone 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@OAIC.gov.au
Or online Privacy Complaint Form on the OAIC website.