Legal Matters
The Geographe Clinic is the Trading Name of The Geographe Clinic Management Company, henceforth ‘TGCMC’, the clinic where private psychiatrists and associated health professionals practice.
The private psychiatrists are private individuals with their own practice, they are not employees nor contractors to TGCMC. The private psychiatrists have elected to utilise the services of TGCMC that is a practice management company that provides staff and the other persons and equipment needed to run a private medical practice.
TGCMC utilises strict protocols to maintain the integrity and security of the personal and clinical data it collects, stores and manages and insofar as the private medical practitioners utilise these services these protocols are adhered to. However individual medical practitioners may choose to operate to some extent outside these protocols of TGCMC and in those areas TGCMC cannot warrant for the integrity and security of that data. If in doubt please refer to your individual treating medical practitioner.
Our Commitment to you
Privacy protection and confidentiality of health information is essential for quality health care.
TGCMC is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the information we collect from patients. In addition to this professional and ethical commitment, we are required to comply with applicable Commonwealth and State privacy law. More information about this can be found here.
What personal information do we collect, store and use and how do we collect this and protect this information
New patients are referred by their GPs or other professionals. In order to provide services, that referral will contain relevant clinical and demographic information.
Mental Health professionals, in the course of performing their duties, collect information that is often sensitive in nature, in order to better understand what has brought this patient at this time to them with this particular problem.
This information (clinical, demographic and financial) is stored in an electronic record (Best Practice Software) which is secure (an IT contractor maintains passwords, limits access to the server, routinely backs up and updates the system, maintains antivirus protection, prevents insecure USB access etc). Best Practice Software has its own policies to prevent unauthorised access to patient data found here.
TGCMC permits administrative & clinical staff, henceforth ‘staff’, access to patient demographic and financial data via their specific password access. The staff members may access clinical patient data in certain controlled circumstances (when a doctor is away a patient may call up for a clinical matter and the doctor may ask the receptionist to open their file for example). Staff are trained in privacy, confidentiality and informed consent matters. Staff are requested to sign a confidentiality document as part of their employment.
The medical practitioners at TGCMC can access each other’s patients’ clinical data in certain circumstances (for example when one practitioner is away another may be asked by the patient or the patients GP for clinical information or a patient may need to see a practitioner urgently and can only get in to see a practitioner who isn’t their regular practitioner).
Patients, when they first attend the practice(s) of TGCMC, give consent to the implicit sharing of information between their referring GP and any other relevant treating health professional as well as the limited sharing of information with the TGCMC administrative staff and/or other TGCMC medical practitioners in selected instances. At any time patients can opt out of this sharing arrangement or else explicitly indicate which part of their clinical record they do not wish to be shared.
Sharing of information, usually via a letter back to the referring GP, is done via secure transmission (HealthLink is our preferred method of encrypted electronic transmission).
You have the right to see what information we hold about you
At any time a patient can ask for copies of their medical file, please Contact us. The receptionist may in some circumstances ask you to complete a form that formalises that request. This request will be forwarded to their treating practitioner who created the clinical file for that patient (that file is owned by that doctor and the patient, it is not owned by TGCMC or its practice(s)). There is usually no cost for providing this, unless the file is extraordinarily large then a processing fee may apply.
Does TGCMC send any information overseas or to third parties such as insurance or marketing companies without my knowledge?
No.
For how long do you keep my personal information?
7 years after the last patient contact for adults or up to the age of 25 for children.
How is my data disposed of?
Paper records are inserted into a secure bin which is collected by a contractor to shred.
Records may be destroyed after 7 years if the practitioner retires. In most circumstances that practitioner who is moving or retiring will transfer your clinical file (with your permission) to your new treating practitioner.
Electronic devices owned by TGCMC have the ability to be remotely wiped clean of data by the IT contractor and/or hardware rendered inoperable/unreadable; in this way your data is destroyed securely.