Treatment:
Your privacy is always paramount to us. During your appointment, our therapist may need you to remove items of clothing in order to access the part of your body needing treatment. Only the areas necessary for assessment and treatment will be exposed. Underwear must be worn at all times during your appointment. We have shorts and singlet tops in each clinic, should you need them. We have curtained and private rooms available. At all times, clients and therapists should be comfortable in the treatment setting.
Information:
In the course of providing treatment, Sport & Spinal Physiotherapy collects a range of health and related information about our clients that we consider sensitive. The practice has a policy that covers how your health information is collected, used, stored, disclosed and accessed.
The practice only collects information that is necessary to provide a quality health service. In the course of providing this service, we may disclose information to treating doctors and other health service providers from whom the client is currently receiving treatment. The client needs to inform the practice if they do not want their health information provided to these health providers.
In accordance with privacy legislation, clients are entitled to access any information that we hold about them. In the initial circumstance, the request needs to be in writing and addressed to the practice principal or practice manager, stating the reason that they require their file to be copied. A fee may apply for administration time in copying the file and it may also take some time to prepare files for release.
We release some health and billing information to health insurers, third party insurers and workers compensation authorities in order to meet their requirements for claim assessment and payment. The therapist can discuss the information with clients and will limit the release if they require. If clients ask to withhold certain information this may have an impact on their insurance claim. The practice will only release additional information to other parties including insurance companies, if the client provides permission for the information to be released.
For the practice to release information to a third party, we need to know which records a client would like us to release or withhold. In this case, any request to release information should specify dates where possible.
The privacy policy also applies to all employees. Additionally from time to time, client information may be accessed by contractors (eg. if our computer billing system gets upgraded). Whilst access is limited as much as possible, contractors are also bound by the practice privacy policy.
We may contact clients from time to time regarding current or new services we offer or with information related to physiotherapy, podiatry, group classes and massage, that we feel may interest them. If clients do not want to receive particular types of information, they can unsubscribe at any time.
To ensure that we continue to improve our privacy processes, we encourage clients to raise any concerns that they may have regarding privacy with the practice principal or practice manager.
If any client would like further information on the Federal Privacy Act, they are encouraged to contact the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner – T: 1300 363 992, E: privacy@privacy.gov.au