Purpose
InSight Clinical Imaging (InSight) is committed to the protection of your personal and health related information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. This privacy policy explains how InSight collects, uses, holds, and discloses personal information, including your health information and other sensitive information.
InSight and its related entities are bound by the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) with regards to the collection, use, holding and disclosure of personal information.
InSight’s privacy policy is available from any InSight location.
Scope
Who does InSight’s privacy policy apply to?
InSight’s privacy policy applies to any person for whom InSight currently holds, or may in the future, collect their personal information, including health information.
What information does the privacy policy apply to?
InSight’s privacy policy applies to personal information. Personal information is information (including health information) or opinions about a person who can be identified or whose identity can be reasonably ascertained from the information.
Policy
Why does InSight collect personal information?
InSight collects personal information in order to:
- Provide medical imaging services to patients;
- Provide services to referring medical and health professionals for their patients;
- Provide advice and information in relation to how the service will be or has been provided;
- Administer and manage the provision of such services, including charging and billing, which in cases of overdue accounts may involve InSight passing on your information to a debt collection agency;
- Providing advice to a referring medical practitioner or specialist in regards to the results of services performed by InSight
- For the purposes of prospective employment with InSight, InSight may collect information from or about prospective employees. This information is used for purposes related to selecting a person for employment with InSight only.
What kinds of personal information does InSight collect and hold?
InSight may collect and hold personal information including (but may not be limited to):
Patients
- Name, address, contact details (telephone and email);
- Date of birth;
- Gender;
- Emergency contact details for your nominated emergency contact person;
- Preferences for future provision of health services;
- Details of complaints and feedback about InSight services.
Clinicians, Practice Managers and Ancillary Staff
- Name, address, contact details (telephone, fax and email);
- Areas of specialization;
- Referral trends;
- IT system details and requirements;
- Preferences for current and future provision of health services;
- Details of complaints and feedback about InSight services.
Prospective Employees
- Name, address, contact details (telephone and email);
- Application letters;
- Resume;
If the required personal information is not provided, InSight may not be able to perform the necessary medical service due to safety risks and legal requirements.
What sensitive and health information does InSight collect and hold?
InSight may collect and hold sensitive and health information including (but may not be limited to):
Patients
- Medical history, test results (e.g. blood test results and pathology results) and results of previous scans;
- Details of private health insurance arrangements;
- Information that has been provided by a patients referring medical practitioner or specialist;
- Financial information, such as credit information, banking details and credit card numbers;
- Medicare number, pension number, Veteran Affairs details and concession cards;
- WorkCover claim numbers and claim details if necessary;
- Details regarding legal claims if applicable;
- Medical provider/s details, such as your general practitioners and specialist practitioners or allied health professionals;
- Information that has been provided on your behalf when authorised (for example, a family member or authorised representative);
- Other information required for InSight functions and activities that InSight may collect directly from you (either verbally or in writing) or information that we have collected from you when you have called us, written to us, or visited InSight;
- Any information that we are required to collect under a Court or Tribunal order or under an Australian Law.
Clinicians, Practice Managers and Ancillary Staff
- Medicare provider numbers and billing information
Remaining anonymous or using a pseudonym
Due to the nature of InSight’s services it is not possible for persons to deal with InSight anonymously or by using a pseudonym. The reasons for this are because:
- InSight services, including diagnosis and advice, may be seriously and negatively affected;
- The risk to patient safety would be unacceptable and would contravene the Commission for Quality and Safety in Healthcare’s Patient Identification Safety Standards;
- It may result in mismatching of patient information and results;
- It may negatively impact on communication between InSight and the patient’s treatment providers;
- The patient may not be able to claim under Medicare or Private Health funds.
How and when is personal information collected at InSight?
InSight will only collect information that is necessary to perform the services provided. Collection of personal information may occur throughout the various stages of medical imaging including:
- At any time when your details are referred to InSight;
- At the time of contacting InSight to make an enquiry or to book an appointment over the phone or online;
- On arrival at InSight when completing/signing the patient information/consent forms;
- When completing any applicable safety questionnaires;
- On first contact with a technical staff member;
- During and after medical imaging has been provided;
- At the time of billing you for a InSight service.
InSight will only collect information that is necessary to perform the services provided.
- Your health service provider, practitioner, specialist, allied health professional, private health insurer or Medicare;
- Your family (or someone who is authorised to act as your representative);
- Other sources as necessary to provide a InSight service.
If we receive unsolicited personal information which we would not normally have collected and this information is not relevant to us providing a service to you, we will destroy or de-identify the information.
How does InSight hold personal information?
InSight will hold your personal information securely in accordance with the requirements under the Privacy Act. Personal information may be held in the following formats:
- Hard copy onsite or in secure storage facilities;
- Electronically in a secure format and environment;
- Digital audio recordings;
- Digital and hard copy image.
InSight will take all reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is protected from misuse, interference, loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. This includes:
- Having appropriate policies, procedures and training in place for staff;
- Implementing security procedures for business premises and IT systems;
- Ensuring sensitive personal information can only be accessed by authorised users for the purpose of providing the relevant health service;
- Where personal and sensitive information is requested the person is authorized to do so and meets the identification requirements;
- Unless InSight is required to retain your information in accordance with legislative and regulatory requirements, InSight will take reasonable steps to destroy and/or de-identify your personal information once it is no longer necessary to hold the information for the provision of services to you.
How does InSight use your personal information?
InSight may use your personal information to:
- Provide patients with a treatment or service;
- Interpret results and prepare reports in relation to InSight services that have been performed, or in relation to a patient’s health for treating practitioners, specialists or allied health professionals;
- Send you correspondence in relation to services performed by InSight (for example, reminding you of an appointment or asking you to update your details);
- Notify InSight’s legal advisors or insurers when it is necessary to do so for the purposes of obtaining advice or defending a claim;
- Customize services and provide educational resources for clinicians, practice managers and auxiliary staff;
- Ensure patient medical records are correctly linked with relevant healthcare providers;
- Undertake quality assurance exercises (such as audits, accreditations, training or complaint handling);
- Process internal administrative procedures such as invoicing and billing;
- Respond to enquiries via telephone, online or by post;
- Make decisions regarding employment of prospective employees.
Disclosure of personal information
In certain circumstances, InSight may need to disclose your personal information to third parties in circumstances such as:
- Where there is a serious threat to life, health and/or safety;
- Your medical provider/s (including allied health professionals) in supplying medical treatment and care;
- Other institutions directly related to your medical treatment such as health funds for billing, processing of claims and auditing purposes;
- Governments, Courts or Tribunals as required or authorised under an Australian law;
- Local or offshore partners of whom we have contracts with to provide services to InSight (under strict and compliant privacy conditions);
- Management, service monitoring, evaluation and complaint handling;
- Other legislative and regulatory compliance requirements;
- Quality control and internal auditing;
- Accreditation activities;
- A debt collection agency for the purpose of recovering unpaid invoices;
- Preparing a defence for anticipated or existing legal proceedings;
- Activities directly related to the provision of health services to you, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect disclosure, or have already consented to disclosure.
Consent to Collect, Use and Disclose your Personal Information
Due to the nature of InSight’s services it is not possible for persons to deal with InSight anonymously or by using a pseudonym. The reasons for this are because InSight will only collect, use and disclose personal information that relates directly to providing a health service or an activity relating to the health service.
In most cases, before or at the time of providing you with a health service (or if this is not practicable, as soon as practicable thereafter), InSight will obtain consent for the purposes for which we intend to collect, use and disclose your personal and sensitive information. In the event that you are unable to provide or communicate your consent to disclose, InSight may disclose personal information to a ‘responsible person’ (as defined in the Privacy Act) if it is necessary in order to provide you with appropriate treatment, care or for compassionate reasons, unless you have explicitly requested otherwise.
You may choose not to provide InSight with consent for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal, sensitive and health information, however, this may mean that InSight is unable to provide the health services required.
Third Party providers
InSight, may from time to time, have arrangements with third party providers, such as for the purposes of providing medical reporting services to InSight. In engaging third party providers, InSight will take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes third party providers being required to provide services to InSight under a contract that requires adherence to Australian privacy law.
InSight also has arrangements with third parties that provide medical reporting, storage, data and communication solutions outside of Australia. These third parties provide infrastructure for data transfer that may include personal information for the purposes of securely holding and storing information on behalf of InSight. InSight takes reasonable steps to ensure that these third party service providers are compliant with Australian privacy legislation.
Access to personal information
At InSight we believe that it is best for patients to consult with their referring health provider about their results. This allows the results to be explained in the context of any further testing and the patient’s ongoing treatment. Reports and images will be provided to the health providers involved in a patient’s treatment.
At your request, InSight will provide you with access to your personal information subject to some limited exceptions permitted by law. If you wish to request access to your personal information held by InSight, please contact our privacy officer whose details are in the “Contact” section of this policy. Such requests must be made in writing and suitable proof of identity must be provided.
Accurate and up-to-date personal information
InSight will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, up-to-date and complete. This will include:
- Confirming personal information when arranging appointments and at each attendance or meeting
- Carrying out patient identification checks in accordance with relevant patient standards
If you need to correct or update your information please do so by calling, emailing or visiting us as soon as possible. It is suggested that you:
- Advise InSight of any errors you notice regarding your personal and health information;
- Update InSight if there are any changes to your personal information.
Access to your information via InSightConnect and Inteleviewer
InSightConnect and Inteleviewer are secure web-based password protected portals which allow referring medical practitioners, specialists or allied health professionals to access images and reports prepared by InSight.
These professionals are able to access InSightConnect and/or Inteleviewer with a unique provider number, subject to the professional entering into access and confidentiality agreements. By accepting these agreements, the user confirms that the information is required in order to provide a medical service and that it will not otherwise be used, knowingly shared or disclosed for other purposes.
Our systems track, record and store all access activities on every patient file. InSight frequently monitors the use of this service and takes all reasonable steps to ensure that the system is being used appropriately for its intended purpose.
Access to your information via My Film Bag
“My Film Bag” is a secure web based password protected portal which allows patients to access their images and reports.
The “My Film Bag” service allows patients to view, store and share their images and reports securely.
InSight provides all patients with 6 months of complementary online storage with “My Film Bag”. Access to the “My Film Bag” storage requires the patient to authenticate their personal details with “My Film Bag”.
InSight has contracted “My Film Bag” to supply specific data storage and communication services for InSight within Australia. InSight takes reasonable steps to ensure that the “My Film Bag”service provider is compliant with Australian privacy legislation.
Online privacy and information submitted electronically
InSight’s website contains forms for people to request information, book an appointment or supply feedback. In some cases telephone numbers and email addresses are required. This information will only be used for the intended purpose. InSight may track and report website traffic, but this data will not reflect any identifying information. Personal and health information submitted electronically via InSight’s online booking form will be subject to the same privacy policy and such principles as discussed throughout this document.
Privacy complaints
If you have a complaint about your privacy, you can contact our privacy officer in one of the ways listed in the ‘Contacting InSight’ section below. InSight will investigate your complaint and will endeavor to provide you with a response as soon as possible.
If you are unhappy with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (Privacy Commissioner) on the telephone contact number below, or on their website.
Privacy Commissioner Number: 1300 363 992
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: www.privacy.gov.au/complaints
Contacting InSight
Individuals are welcome to ask any questions regarding privacy and the way InSight manages personal information, complain about the handling of your own information or request access to your personal information.
The contact details for the Privacy Officer are:
Postal: 23/257 Balcatta Road, Balcatta WA 6021
Email: insight@insightci.com.au
Web: insightci.com.au
