Privacy Policy
The Perio Specialists & Dental Implants is part of the Coastal Dental Care group.
The Perio Specialists & Dental Implants appreciates the importance of privacy and is committed to respecting and safeguarding your personal information in a way which upholds your privacy rights. This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, store, use, disclose and handle your personal information when you interact with us.
Our handling of personal information is in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the “Privacy Act”), and other relevant State and Territory laws that govern the use of personal information and health records.
Definitions
In this Privacy Policy:
Us: The terms ‘us’, ‘we’ or ‘our’ mean Coastal Dental Care Australia Pty Ltd 617 360 460 (CDC), our related and subsidiary entities including, our CDC Dental clinics and our services, and our other non-CDC branded dental practices including The Perio Specialists & Dental Implants.
You: The terms ‘you’ or ‘your’ mean the person interacting with us and our services and using our services, or visiting our website.
Personal information: Means information or opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, and whether the information or opinion is true or not and is recorded in a material form or not. Examples of personal information include your name, address and telephone number, and your date of birth.
Sensitive information: Is a type of personal information that is given a higher level of protection under the Privacy Act, and includes health, genetic and biometric information as well as information about race or ethnic origin, sexual orientation and criminal record.
Health information: Includes information or an opinion about an individual’s physical or mental health or disability, their health preferences including about the future provision of health services, use of health services, and genetics.
Personal information we collect and hold
The types of personal information that we collect from you will depend on how you interact with us, your relationship with us and the nature of the services we provide to you, and also the legal obligations we may have. Personal information we may collect from you includes:
- Name;
- Address, telephone number(s) and email address;
- Date of birth;
- Health fund and membership details;
- Medicare number;
- Pension, Veteran’s Affairs or other relevant concession details;
- Family relationships;
- Occupation;
- Details of other treating practitioners;
- Dental and medical history, test results, x-rays, diagnosis and treatments;
- Banking and payment details;
- Photographic or video recordings in connection to your care (for example to track treatment progress);
- Insurance claims such as motor vehicle and workers’ compensation;
- Other personal information that is contained in communications between us and you;
- If you’re applying for employment with us, personal information will also be collected in relation to your employment application such as information about your qualifications and employment history, police checks and Blue Card details.
How we collect your personal information
We will generally collect your personal information from you directly (unless you are unable to provide the information). For example, we collect your information from you when you complete and provide the following, either electronically or by hard-copy:
- Information and consent forms;
- Administration and financial forms;
- Employment applications for a role with us;
- Personal and sensitive information provided to us in person or over the telephone;
- When a complaint is lodged with us;
- Medical/Dental History Form and similar;
- Treatment and services enquiry forms (marketing);
- With your consent during the course of treatment (for example photographs taken with your consent during your treatment);
- Information submitted through our Website, social media or by subscribing to our materials.
We may also collect your information from third parties such as other dental practitioners who are treating or have previously treated you, other health practitioners, health insurance providers, Medicare, and government bodies. In particular circumstances, we may collect your information from a legal guardian or other authorised representative or family member.
How we use and disclose your personal information
We use and disclose your personal information only for the purpose for which we have collected it. There are some exceptions to this under the Privacy Act, including where:
- You have consented to the use of your personal information for another purpose;
- Your personal information is used or disclosed for another related purpose;
- The information is sensitive information; the other purpose is directly related to the purpose the sensitive information was collected;
- We are required or authorised by law to disclose your information for another purpose;
- The use or disclosure is otherwise permitted by the Privacy Act.
We may use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:
- To provide you with dental treatment and ongoing care, including providing you with reminders for appointments and follow-ups;
- To enable co-ordination between us and other providers involved in your dental care and treatment;
- To provide information to a responsible person (such as a parent, guardian or spouse) if you are incapable or unable to communicate, unless you have requested that we do not disclose particular information;
- For invoicing, billing and account management;
- To manage our business, service monitoring, planning, evaluation and complaint handling, and for insurance and legal services;
- In quality assurance processes, accreditations and authorisations, managing risk and for staff education and training;
- To conduct client surveys, and client and market research and analysis;
- To compile and analyse statistics relevant to public health and safety (such as reporting a notifiable disease);
- To let you know about news and updates on Coastal Dental Care and our group dental practices, and promotions and events you may be interested in; and
- To assess your employment application, if you’re applying for a role with us.
The Spam Act 2003 (Cth) restricts the circumstances in which we can send you commercial electronic messages (including email and SMS text messages). Other privacy laws, such as the Privacy Act, further restrict when we may send other advertising material to you. If you no longer wish to receive such promotional information from us, you may advise us in writing or use the opt out/unsubscribe facility in our communications. Commercial electronic messages from us will identify us as the sender, and include information about how to contact us and unsubscribe. Our records will usually be amended within 30 days or as otherwise required by the Spam Act. Details of how to contact us are set out below. Your consent will be deemed if you do not opt out when we offer you the opportunity to do so, and will remain current until you advise us otherwise.
Information collected by our website
When you visit our website at www.theperiospecialists.com.au including its sub-sites and pages, we collect non-personally identifiable information, including your browser type, version and language, operating system, pages viewed while browsing the Website, page access times and referring website address. This information is used for the purpose of gauging visitor traffic, trends, and delivering personalised content to you.
Third party links
Our Website may, from time to time, contain links to other websites that are not ours. These websites are not subject to our Privacy Policy, and we are not responsible for the content of these websites or the privacy practices of these websites or the businesses that operate them. You should check the privacy policies published on such websites before providing your personal information.
Storage and security of your personal information
We take all reasonable steps to safeguard your personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure or modification, as well as misuse, interference and loss, including:
- maintaining physical security measures over our physical premises;
- maintaining a secure environment for storage of information, whether in electronic form or in hard copy;
- using industry standard security measures, such as restricting access to authorised personnel only, and encryption of certain data (when data is in transit and at rest) and password protection to secure information kept in electronic form;
- employ a range of computer and network security measures (such as systems access, firewalls and data encryption) over our electronic systems.
Our employees are required to maintain the confidentiality of any personal and sensitive information held. This protection applies in relation to information stored in both electronic and hard copy form.
Overseas disclosure of your personal information
Some of the third parties we disclose your personal information to, such as organisations who provide technology and other services on our behalf, may be located or may use technology facilities located outside Australia. Our contracts with these parties generally include an obligation for them to comply with Australian privacy law and our Privacy Policy.
Accessing and correction of your personal information
You have a right to request access to or correction of your personal information held by us, subject to exceptions allowed by law. If you wish to access, correct or update the personal information we hold about you, please contact us as set out below. You may be required to put your request in writing and will be required to verify your identity for security reasons.
Generally, we will give you full access to the personal information which we hold about you. However, in some circumstances, we may not be permitted by law to provide an individual with access to or to correct their personal information. If this is the case, you will be provided with the reason(s) for our decision. We will normally provide access without charge unless you request access to a large volume of personal information or we have to access our archived records to obtain the information. In these circumstances, we may impose a fee to recover our reasonable costs.
Complaints
If you have any concerns about our handling of your personal information, or you believe that we have not complied with this Privacy Policy or the Privacy Act, please contact us as set out below. Our Privacy Officer will investigate the complaint and determine whether a breach has occurred and what steps (if any) to take. We will take any privacy complaint seriously.
We will aim to resolve any complaint in a timely manner, and our target response time is 30 days. We ask you to cooperate with us during any complaint process and provide us with relevant information that we may require from you.
We expect that our complaints process will deal with your complaint fairly and efficiently. However, if you remain dissatisfied, you can also make a formal complaint (in writing) with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):
Phone: 1300 363 992
Web: www.oaic.gov.au
Address: GPO Box 5288 Sydney, NSW 2001
Changes to this Privacy Policy
This is our current Privacy Policy outlining our personal information management practices. It replaces any other Privacy Policy published by us to date, whether on the website or in hard copy. We reserve the right to revise this Privacy Policy from time to time.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or feedback about this Privacy Policy, please contact the Privacy Officer at:
Privacy Officer
Coastal Dental Care
PO Box 9074
Gold Coast Mail Centre QLD 9726
Phone: (07) 5539 7400
Email: [email protected]
