Privacy Policy

1. We respect your privacy

At Westlake Dental, we take your privacy seriously.

We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and the relevant health records legislation in Queensland. Your privacy and maintaining the confidentiality of your personal information is important to us.

This Privacy Policy outlines how we use and manage your personal information.

As we plan to ensure our Privacy Policy remains current, this policy is subject to change. We may modify this policy at any time, in our sole discretion, and all modifications will be effective immediately upon our posting of the modifications on our website.

2. Definitions

In this Privacy Policy:

Westlake Dental (we, us, our) means the dental practice operating at Westlake, Queensland.

You or Your means individual patients or customers.

Personal information has the same meaning that it has under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

3. Collection of Information

3.1. Information We Collect

We will only collect your personal information that is necessary to provide you with appropriate dental or other services.

The personal information that we collect may include:

• Name, address, telephone and email contact details
• Personal details such as age and gender
• Details of previous dentists you have been a patient of
• Your Medicare number
• Financial information (for example, credit card numbers to assist in the administration of payments for dental services)
• Sensitive information including:
  • Medical history
  • Family medical history
  • Current health and dental assessment

3.2. How we collect your information

We may collect personal and/or health information directly from you or your authorised representatives, in a number of ways, including when you or your authorised representatives:

• Complete the booking or contact forms on our website
• Share information directly with our staff or our associated medical practitioners who provide services to you
• Subscribe to our newsletters or other marketing materials
• Complete forms, contact us via email, phone, or during a clinic visit
• Use our services or purchase products from us

We may also collect health information from a third party such as a health fund or referrer, or a publicly available source, but only if you provide them with consent to such collection or would reasonably expect us to collect your health information from the third party, or if collection is necessary to provide you with appropriate health care or services.

4. Use and Disclosure

The primary purpose of collecting your personal information is to deliver, manage and administer our services effectively while ensuring the efficient and sustainable operation of our practice. In the course of these processes, we may disclose your personal information to our related entities on a confidential basis. In addition, your personal information may be used for other purposes, including:

• To address accounts to you
• To provide dental and related services to you
• To provide health care or for purposes directly related to providing you with dental or health care
• To write to you about our services and any issues affecting your dental or health care
• To administer your invoicing for dental and/or medical services
• To administer and process your credit card payments
• To process health insurance claims
• To collect unpaid invoices via an external collection agency
• To maintain and administer your patient records at Westlake Dental
• To answer your enquiries and deliver customer services to you
• To address and resolve complaints
• To comply with laws and regulations

We may use your de-identified information and data in a general sense:

• For research, evaluation and benchmarking purposes, including creating marketing statistics, identifying user demands and meeting customer needs generally
• To improve our website and services

4.1. Use of your health information

We only use health information for the purposes of providing you with dental services or health care or for purposes directly related to providing you with dental services or health care.

We will not use your health information for any other purpose unless one of the following applies:

• You have consented
• The other purpose is directly related to providing you with dental or health services and you would reasonably expect that your information may be used for that purpose
• The use of your health information is required or authorised by law

4.2. Disclosure to Third Parties

To deliver our services, ensure efficient business operations and comply with applicable laws and regulations, we may need to share your information with third parties, including in the following circumstances:

• To government and regulatory bodies
• To your emergency contact in an emergency
• To any person or entity acting on our behalf
• To our professional advisors
• To dentists, dental specialists and other healthcare professionals
• To third party health benefit providers and insurance companies
• To review the services for the purpose of quality of our services
• To protect our copyright, trade marks and other legal rights
• To a purchaser or potential purchaser under an agreement to maintain confidentiality
• Where disclosure is required by law

4.3. Direct Marketing

Our marketing functions support our growth and development and provide you with information about services offered by us.

Our practice may use your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing, such as sending newsletters. However, we will not on-sell your personal information.

We understand that you may not wish to receive marketing materials. If you would prefer not to receive such information, a request can easily be made to the Privacy Officer or another staff member at Westlake Dental.

5. Data Quality

We take steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate, up to date and complete. These steps include maintaining and updating personal and health information when you attend the practice, or you advise us that your personal information has changed.

We keep hard-copy and/or electronic records and take reasonable steps to protect those records against loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure, or other misuse.

After a period of seven years (and if you attended the practice as a child, you have reached the age of 25) we may destroy your records in accordance with applicable laws.

6. Data Security

Given the inherent insecurity of information passed over the Internet, we do not currently support the transmission of personal health information to or from you over the Internet. If you send any personal health information to us via the Internet, we cannot guarantee its security.

7. Employer/employee responsibilities

As an employer, we collect personal information related to employment and human resource management. All staff employed by us are required to undergo training to understand their responsibilities in maintaining your privacy.

8. Access and Correction

8.1. Your right to access and correct your personal information

You may request access to your health or personal information we hold, or request that we change that information. We will allow access or make the changes unless we consider that there is a sound reason under the Privacy Act, or other relevant laws to withhold the information, or not make the changes.

8.2. Correcting your information

To ensure we meet your needs effectively, it is essential that the information we hold about you is accurate. If your details change or you believe any information we hold is incorrect, incomplete, or outdated, please contact us to update it.

9. Cookies and analytics

We use cookies to collect data that helps us improve the functionality and efficiency of our website and services. You can choose if and how a cookie will be accepted by configuring your preferences and options in your browser.

10. Our Website and Third Party Links

Our website may contain links to third party websites. These links are meant for your convenience only. Links to third party websites do not constitute sponsorship, endorsement or approval of these websites.

11. Non-personal Information

Any non-personal information, communications and material you send to our website or to us, or which we obtain from third parties without promises of confidentiality, may be kept, used and disclosed by us on a non-confidential basis.

12. Sending information overseas

In the course of providing our services and maintaining your records, we may disclose your personal information to service providers or related entities such as, off-site electronic data storage providers, transcription service providers, professional indemnity insurers, marketing agencies or other third party service entities. These recipients may be located offshore.

13. Non-disclosure of information

Although we respect your right to privacy, if you choose not to provide us with information relevant to your care, we may not be able to provide a service to you or the service we are asked to provide may not be appropriate for your needs.

14. Complaints

We take your privacy seriously. If you suspect there has been or may have been a breach of your privacy, you can complain directly to our Privacy Officer.

For more information about Privacy laws, or to raise concerns about any matter not satisfactorily resolved with us you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au or ph. 1300 363 992).

15. Enquiries

We review and update this Privacy Policy on a regular basis. For further information about our management of privacy, please contact our practice.