KIDZDOCTOR Ltd private medical practice Privacy Policy

Current as of June 2023

Introduction

This privacy policy is to provide information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

For the purposes of our practice, data collected will include your details as well as those of your child (our patient).

Our practice is committed to best practice in relation to the management of information we collect. This practice has developed a policy to protect patient privacy in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘the Privacy Act’).  Our policy is to inform you of:

• the kinds of information that we collect and hold, which, as a medical practice, is likely to be ‘health information’ for the purposes of the Privacy Act;
• how we collect and hold personal information;
• the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information;
• how you may access your personal information and seek the correction of that information;
• how you may complain about a breach of the New Zealand Privacy Principles and how we will deal with such a complaint;
• whether we are likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients;
• when you register child as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our specialists and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will seek additional consent from you to do this.

What kinds of personal information do we collect?

The type of information we may collect and hold includes:

• your name, your child’s name, physical address, date of birth, email and phone number;
• medical insurance policy/membership number;
• other health information about your child, including:
• your concerns/reason for seeking consultation, previous diagnosis and treatments.
• specialist reports and test results.
• your child’s appointment details.
• prescriptions we have dispensed.
• your child’s NHI number.
• any other information about ethnicity, gender, and eligibility for publicly funded services.

How do we collect personal information?

We will generally collect personal information:

• from you directly when you provide your details to us. This might be via a face-to-face; discussion, telephone conversation, registration form or online form.
• from a person responsible for your child e.g. Oranga Tamariki;
• from third parties where the Privacy Act or other law allows it – this may include, but is not limited to:  other members of your child’s treating team, diagnostic centres, laboratories, specialists, hospitals, referral system, government health data systems, electronic prescription services, and your health insurer.

Why do we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information?

Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide healthcare services. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding, and sharing your personal information is to manage your child’s health.

In general, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide health services to your child;
• to communicate with you in relation to the health service being provided;
• to comply with our legal obligations, including, but not limited to, mandatory notification of communicable diseases or mandatory reporting under applicable child protection legislation;
• to help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our ITC systems;
• for consultations with other doctors and allied health professional involved in your child’s healthcare;
• to obtain, analyse and discuss test results from diagnostic and pathology laboratories;
• for identification and insurance claiming;
• information can also be disclosed through an electronic transfer of prescriptions service;
• To liaise with your insurance company, health disability commissioner (HDC) as required.
• to improve the quality of the services we offer to our patients through research and analysis of our patient data, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).
• to improve population health outcomes, we may provide de-identified patient data to other organizations. The information shared securely and patients cannot be identified. You can let our reception staff know if you do not want your information included.

Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you without your express consent. How can you access and correct your personal information.

• Other than in the course of providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.
• we will not share your personal information with anyone outside New Zealand (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

Your rights and access to your personal Information

You have a right to seek access to, and correction of the personal information which we hold about you/your child.

Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their medical records. We require you to put this request in writing or via email and our practice will respond within 30 days.There may be an administrative charge for complying with the request.

Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information.

For details on how to access and correct your health record, please contact our practice as noted below under ‘Contact Details’.

We will normally respond to your request within 30 days.

How do we hold and share your personal information?

Our staff are trained and required to respect and protect your privacy. We take reasonable steps to protect information held from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes:

• strong password protections.
• holding your information on an encrypted database.
• use of secure messaging exchange for data sharing and communication using Connected Health certified network. 
• holding your information in secure cloud storage managed by a HIPPA compliant Patient Management Systems (PMS).
• our staff sign confidentiality agreements.
• our practice has document retention and destruction policies.
• only people who need to access your information will be able to do so.

Privacy related questions and complaints

If you have any questions about privacy-related issues or wish to complain about a breach of the New Zealand Privacy Principles or the handling of your personal information by us, you may lodge your complaint in writing to (see below for details).  We will normally respond to your request within 30 days.

If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC).

Anonymity and pseudonyms

The Privacy Act provides that individuals must have the option of not identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym. In practice, it is impractical to deal with medical patients anonymously or via a pseudonym. The provision of medical services is likely to be impacted, and eligibility for publicly funded health services, or a health insurer where applicable, is likely to be affected.

HealthOne

South Island patients only – please note that this site is contributing to, and accessing healthcare information from, HealthOne –

What is HealthOne?

HealthOne is a South Island based secure electronic record that allows registered healthcare providers directly involved in your healthcare, to quickly access information such as your test results, allergies, medications, GP summaries and hospital information. HealthOne strictly adheres to the principles of the Privacy Act 2020 as well as the Rules set out in the Health Information Privacy Code 2020. Access is only possible via an approved highly secure healthcare information network which is regularly audited and tested. Privacy auditing is used to check that only those directly involved in your care are accessing your information.

To find out more about HealthOne please visit https://healthone.org.nz. Please note that you are entitled to restrict the sharing of your healthcare records by contacting 0508 837 872 or emailing HealthOne.privacy@pegasus.health.nz

Overseas disclosure

We may disclose your personal information to the following overseas recipients:

• any practice or individual who assists us in providing services (such as where you have come from overseas and had your health record transferred from overseas or have treatment continuing from an overseas provider).
• overseas based cloud storage.
• we will not share your personal information with anyone outside New Zealand (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.
• anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it.

Updates to this Policy

This Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and other necessary developments. Updates will be publicised on the practice’s website.

Contact details for privacy related issues