Privacy Policy

HEARTH PERSONAL CARE SERVICES – PRIVACY POLICY

Hearth Personal Care Services (ABN 21 618 155 810) understands the importance of protecting the privacy of an individual’s personal information (including health information). The purpose of this policy is to ensure you understand how we collect, use and disclose your personal information (including health information).

This Policy may be updated from time to time. If you require a hard copy of this Privacy Statement or a copy in some other format to suit your particular needs please contact us and we will arrange for a suitable copy to be provided to you.

We will comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act, as well as this APP Privacy Policy when handling your personal information.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Personal information is any information that identifies an individual or any information from which an individual’s identity could reasonably be ascertained.

During the provision of our services we generally collect four kinds of information:

1. personal information provided by you, including your name and contact details;
2. health and financial information as you enter into a Services Agreement with Hearth, as well as part of our ongoing service provision;
3. information that we obtain about you when you visit our website including your internet protocol (IP) address, the time of your visit, the pages and links you have viewed; and
4. aggregated statistical data which is information relating to your use of our website and our services, such as traffic and demographics.

HOW DO WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Personal information (including health information) may be collected from a client, or a client’s family member or advocate.

From time to time we may require access to information from another provider or government agency in order to provide the best services we can. We will obtain your consent prior to doing so.

WHY DO WE NEED YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We collect your personal information for the purposes of providing you with our care and services.

It also enables us to confirm the level of government funding in relation to your care, to lawfully liaise with a nominated representative and to contact family if requested or needed, to identify and inform you of any other services that may interest you, or for other purposes permitted or referred to under any terms and conditions you enter into or otherwise agree to with respect to our services.

NOTIFICATION

We will at or before the time or as soon as practicable after we collect personal information from you take all reasonable steps to ensure that you are notified or made aware of the purpose for which we are collecting personal information as well as the identity of other entities or persons to whom we usually disclose personal information.

WHO DO WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO?

We may disclose your personal information to government departments such as the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), and the accrediting bodies associated with the NDIA including state agencies and organisations.  We may engage service providers (including international providers) to securely store and manage our business information, including your personal information.

We may not use or disclose personal information for a purpose other than the primary purpose of collection, unless:

1. the secondary purpose is related to the primary purpose and you would reasonably expect disclosure of the information for the secondary purpose;
2. you have consented;
3. the information is health information and the collection, use or disclosure is necessary for research, the compilation or analysis of statistics, relevant to public health or public safety, it is impractical to obtain consent, the use or disclosure is conducted within the privacy principles and guidelines and we reasonably believe that the recipient will not disclose the health information;
4. we believe on reasonable grounds that the disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to an individual’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or public safety;
5. we have reason to suspect unlawful activity and use or disclose the personal information as part of our investigation of the matter or in reporting our concerns to relevant persons or authorities;
6. we reasonably believe that the use or disclosure is reasonably necessary to allow an enforcement body to enforce laws, protect the public revenue, prevent seriously improper conduct or prepare or conduct legal proceedings; or
7. the use or disclosure is otherwise required or authorised by law.

DISCLOSURE TO A PERSON RESPONSIBLE

We may disclose Health Information about an individual to a person who is responsible for the individual if:

1. the individual is incapable of giving consent or communicating consent;
2. the relationship manager is satisfied that the disclosure is necessary to provide appropriate care, for compassionate reasons, or is necessary for a quality review of our services (and the disclosure is limited to the extent reasonable and necessary for this purpose); and
3. the disclosure is not contrary to any wish previously expressed by the individual of which the relationship manager is aware.

A ‘person responsible’ is a parent, a child or sibling, a spouse, a relative, a member of the individual’s household, a guardian, an enduring power of attorney, a person who has an intimate personal relationship with the individual, or a person nominated by the individual to be contacted in case of emergency, provided they are at least 18 years of age.

SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold is protected against misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We hold personal information in both hard copy and electronic forms in secure databases on secure premises that have access requirements. However, we cannot guarantee the security of any personal information transmitted to us via the Internet.

CAN YOU ACCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Under the Privacy Act, you have a right to access your personal information that is collected and held by us. If you have any privacy questions or complaints, please discuss with your Relationship Manager or e-mail via [email protected]