Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28/06/2023

SportsPlus Physiotherapy takes pride in delivering a personalised and friendly experience to each patient, client and employee. In doing so, we respect your privacy and are committed to complying with our obligations under the National Privacy Act as contained in the newly amended privacy legislation which came into effect on 21 December 2001.

This Privacy Policy explains:

• What kind of information we collect and hold about our patients
• How we collect and store your information
• Why we collect this information and how it might be used
• Your right to access your information, make changes or lodge a privacy complaint

What Kind of information do we collect?

SportsPlus Physiotherapy collects a range of personal information about their patients and prospective clientele that may include the following:

• Name, date of birth, mailing and street address, email address, contact numbers
• Information about your family or relatives or key contact people
• Health fund details
• Any government identifiers such as Medicare number, DVA number. However, we do not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
• Other health and information about you such as a record of your symptoms, your relevant medical history, the diagnosis made and the treatment decisions made. Other information could include:
  • Specialist report
  • Test results
  • Your prescriptions
  • Your healthcare identifier
  • Other information for the purpose of providing care to you
• Occupation and employer
• Lifestyle and hobbies

How do we collect and store your personal information?

We will collect personal information about you through the following methods:

• Directly from you when you give us your details (e.g. by completing the New Patient Form, face-to-face, over the phone or an online form, by entering a competition or leaving your information on a message system)
• During a consultation in the clinic
• From a person responsible for you
• Purchase over-the-counter or online products
• Enquiry or complaint
• Incoming call list; and
• Third party when we are permitted by law to do that for example:
  • Third party government agencies (like the Department of Veteran Affairs and Medicare)
  • Private health insurers
  • Solicitors, lawyers and worker’s compensation companies; and
  • Medical professionals (such as general practitioners, allied health professionals, specialists etc).

We take care to ensure that the personal information collected on our website (www.sportsplusphysio.com.au) is protected. However, you may access external websites by clicking on links we have provided. These other websites are not subject to SportsPlus Physiotherapy privacy standards, policies and procedures. Please refer to their privacy statements and/or Privacy Officers regarding the information stored, gathered and presented via that website.

SportsPlus Physiotherapy takes measures to ensure your personal information is protected from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, disclosure or alteration.
Your personal information is stored in secure electronic databases. We use a number of appropriate security procedures and technology to protect this information. We also take measures to remove your personal information when it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected.

We also endeavour to keep your information relevant, accurate, complete and up to date. If you require your personal information to be updated, please contact the clinic or do so at the next appointment attended.

Why do we collect and use this information?

We collect personal information that is necessary to provide you with the best possible health care. Sportsplus Physiotherapy may need to communicate with you and others involved in your care in relation to those services and this information helps us to maintain a high level of quality customer service. Examples of when your personal information may be used include:

• Administrative purpose in running our clinics
• To help us manage our accounts and administrative services (e.g. billing or debt recover, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts etc).
• To communicate with your health fund and claim on insurance or Medicare.
• To get test results from diagnostic and pathology services
• For use by a multidisciplinary team involved in your care (GP, Surgeon, Exercise physiologist etc)
• To comply with our legal obligations (e.g. mandatory reporting under legislation, responding to a court order or subpoena)
• Direct marketing purposes, mail and email reminders
• To improve our products and services
• Remind you of upcoming appointments in the form of a phone call, SMS or email
• Sending communication to you about our products and services
• Update your records and keep your contact details current

Some of our high uality customer service procedures may involve us sharing your personal information with a third party. For example, we outsource the conduct of our patient reminders to a third-party provider.

However, we do not sell, trade, or rent personal information to others. We may share generic aggregated demographic information, or de-identified health records, not linked to any personal information, with our business partners, trusted affiliates and advertisers for the purposes outlined above, or to use for research purposes.

Accessing and updating my information or making a complaint

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal information that we hold about you is as accurate as is possible. We will always provide you with access to any personal information we hold about you. You are able to contact us at any time and ask for its correction if you feel the information we have about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.
Patients and clients can request to have copies of their personal information, clinical notes, images and reports sent to them or a third party by contacting SportsPlus Physiotherapy to obtain a Release of Personal Information Consent Form.
Your personal information will not be released unless a consent form has been signed, received and processed by the privacy. We will only disclose personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act. This means that personal information may be disclosed:

• For the purposes and uses for which we have advised that we are collecting it, and for related purposes that you would reasonably expect
• Where we have the consent by you to do so
• As required by law, or
• Under other circumstances where permitted under the Act.

We do not propose to disclose your personal information to recipients located overseas. If we want to transfer your personal information overseas, we will first seek your consent, unless we are required by law to do the transfer.

If you have concerns about how we have handled your privacy information or would like to discuss any elements of our Privacy Policy, we invite you to contact SportsPlus Physiotherapy directly at admin@sportsplusphysio.com.au or via our Contact Us page on the website.