EnhanceABILITY’s Legal Obligations

In order to provide you with the health care services that you have requested, EnhanceABILITY will need to collect and use your personal information. If you provide incomplete or inaccurate information to us or withhold personal and health information from us we may not be able to provide you with the services you are seeking.

What information does EnhanceABILITY collect?

We will only collect the information we need for the particular function or activity we are carrying out.

We collect information from you that is necessary to provide you with speech pathology services and to manage our relationship with you. The information we collect includes: your name, date of birth, address, funding details and information about diagnoses, medications, previous interventions and family history. We require this information to assist the therapist to diagnose and treat you.

How does EnhanceABILITY collect health information?

We will usually collect your health information directly from you. Sometimes, we may need to collect information about you from a third party (such as a relative, teacher or another service provider).

How does EnhanceABILITY use your information?

EnhanceABILITY uses your personal information for the purpose you have given the information to us. We will use your information to provide speech pathology services to you, to manage our relationship with you and to contact you in relation to matters concerning your care. We may also use your information for other purposes permitted under the Privacy Act 1988.

Who might we disclose your information to?

We may disclose your information to the following people:

(a) Service providers

Your personal information will generally only be used by the therapist involved, however on occasion your care may be provided by a number of service providers (for example, speech pathologist, occupational therapist, psychologist, paediatrician, teaching staff) working or consulting together. We may disclose your information to these service providers as part of the process of providing service.

(b) The referrer

EnhanceABILITY will provide service information (eg summary and support plan) to the referrer (i.e., your medical practitioner) following discharge from EnhanceABILITY or at other times, as required.

If you do not wish us to provide a copy of your summary to the referrer you must let us know. Also, if the referrer’s details have changed please let us know.

(c) Relatives, guardian, close friends or legal representative

We may provide information about your condition to your parent, child, other relatives, close personal friends, guardians, or to a responsible person for you, unless you tell us that you do not wish us to disclose your health information to any such person.

(d) Other uses and disclosures

In order to provide the best possible service provision, we may also use or disclose your personal and health information where necessary for:

• activities such as quality assurance processes, accreditation, audits, risk and claims management, patient satisfaction surveys and staff education and training;
• invoicing, billing and account management;
• to liaise with your health fund, Medicare or National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and where required provide information to your health fund, Medicare or the NDIA to verify treatment provided to you;
• the purpose of sending you standard reminders, for example for appointments and follow-up care, by text message or email to the number or address which you have provided to us.

(f) Other uses with your consent

With your consent we may also use your information for other purposes such as including you in research. Please note, however, that unless you provide us with your express consent for this purpose, we will not use your information in this way. We will not disclose your personal information to any individual who is outside Australia.

 Access to and correction of your personal and health information

• You have a right to access the personal and health information that we hold about you. You can also request an amendment to your personal and health information should you believe that it is inaccurate.
• If we do not agree to change your medical record/personal information in accordance with your request, we will permit you to make a statement of the requested changes and we will enclose this with your record.
• Should you wish to obtain access to or request changes to your health record you can ask for our Privacy Officer (see details below) who can give you more detailed information about EnhanceABILITY’s access and correction procedure.
• Please note that EnhanceABILITY may recover reasonable costs associated with supplying this information to you.

Data Quality

EnhanceABILITY will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information which we may collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and current.

Data Security

• EnhanceABILITY will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We use technologies and processes such as access control procedures, network firewalls, encryption and physical security to protect your privacy.

EnhanceABILITY will destroy or permanently de-identify any of your information which is in its possession or control if no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected, provided that EnhanceABILITY is not required under an Australian law or court/tribunal or otherwise to retain the information.

If:

(a) you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy;

(b) EnhanceABILITY does not agree to provide you with access to your personal information; or

(c) you have or a complaint about our information handling practices,

You can lodge a complaint with or contact our Privacy Officer on the details below. We will promptly review your complaint and provide a response to you.

How to contact us if you have a complaint about privacy issues

By letter: Privacy Officer, EnhanceABILITY, PO Box 1252, BATHURST NSW 2795

By email: info@enhanceability.com.au

By telephone: 02 63019544

This section of our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal information which is collected from our website: www.enhanceability.com.au.

Collection

When you use our website, we do not attempt to identify you as an individual user and we will not collect personal information about you unless you specifically provide this to us.

Sometimes, we may collect your personal information if you choose to provide this to us via an online form or by email, for example, if you:

• submit a general enquiry via our contacts page;
• register to receive eNewsletters; or
• send a written complaint or enquiry to our Privacy Officer.

When you use our website, our Internet Service Provider (ISP) may record and log for statistical purposes the following information about your visit:

• your computer address;
• your top-level name (for example, .com., gov., .org, .au etc.);
• the date and time of your visit;
• the pages and documents you access during your visit; and
• the browser you are using.

Our website management agent may use statistical data collected by our ISP to evaluate the effectiveness of our website.

Cookies

• A “cookie” is a device that allows our server to identify and interact more effectively with your computer. Cookies do not identify individual users, but they do identify your ISP and your browser type.
• This website uses temporary cookies. This means that upon closing your browser, the temporary cookie assigned to you will be destroyed and no personal information is maintained which will identify you at a later date.
• Personal information such as your email address is not collected unless you provide it to us. We do not disclose domain names or aggregate information to third parties other than agents who assist us with this website and who are under obligations of confidentiality. You may be able to configure your browser to accept or reject all cookies and to notify you when a cookie is used. We suggest that you refer to your browser instructions or help screens to learn more about these functions. However, please note that if you configure your browser so as not to receive any cookies, a certain level of functionality of the EnhanceABILITY website and other websites may be lost.

Links to third party websites

We may create links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices employed by websites that are linked from our website.

Use and disclosure

We will use any personal information collected via our website in accordance with our privacy policy.

EnhanceABILITY will:

• Support consumers to understand their rights and what they should expect of providers
• Supports consumers to have the confidence to complain when they face issues
• Enable other support workers and advocates to make complaints and ensure issues can be addressed when persons with disability are unable or unwilling to make a complaint
• Support the resolution of complaints when possible and provide an escalation pathway where required
• Enable the identification of issues and drive improvements to our service

Identify and report on any complaints or issues that are reportable under NSW Law.

• You can contact us via telephone on 63019544, in writing to us at PO Box 1252, BATHURST, 2795 e-mail at info@enhanceability.com.au or in person. You can complain anonymously.  You can also ask someone to complain on your behalf.
• If you wish to support someone who has difficulty communicating to make a complaint or who requires an interpreter we will make sure to the best of our ability and resources that supports including augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are available.

All reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that:

1. A person who makes a complaint, or a person with a disability affected by an issue raised in a complaint, is not disadvantaged as a result of the making of the complaint; and
2. Information provided in a complaint is kept confidential and only disclosed if required by law or if the complaint needs to be discussed with a team member.
3. All EnhanceABILITY team members are required to handle complaints in a polite, prompt, consistent, positive and constructive manner.

1. Once you contact we will ask if a Director can meet with you either face to face or over the phone to gather more information about your concerns.
2. We will formally document your complaint/concerns on our Complaints and Incidents Record Form and investigate what happened in order to report back to you.
3. We will ask you to meet with a Director to review the information we have documented. We will talk about our findings and discuss how best to resolve your concerns.
4. We will ask you to review what we have written and co-sign it as a correct representation of your concerns and your understanding of our actions to resolve them.
5. We will provide you with a copy of the completed Complaints and Incidents Record Form.
6. If the complaints/concerns are about a consumer we will also keep a copy of the form on his or her file.

NDIS Participants: NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission

If you are, or are complaining on behalf of an NDIS participant, a complaint can be made to the NDIS Commission by:

• Phoning 1800 035 544 (free call from landlines) or TTY 133 677. Interpreters can be arranged. If you have a communication disability you can contact the National Relay Service and ask for 1800 035 544.
• Completing a complaint contact form available at https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/participants/complaints

Other Consumers: Health Care Complaints Commission NSW

The Commission’s Inquiry Service handles inquiries from people who are concerned about the quality of the health care provided to them or to a family member or friend. The service also responds to questions from health service providers in relation to complaints. Inquiries are usually made by telephone or email. Sometimes people visit the Commission’s offices.

Contact details:

• Telephone 1800 043 159 (free call from landlines) or TTY 02 9219 7555.
• National Relay Service 133 677
• Email: hccc@hccc.nsw.gov.au
• Post: Locked Mail Bag 18 STRAWBERRY HILLS NSW 2012