Privacy Policy

1. PURPOSE

All Areas Speech Pathology is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information we

collect and hold about individuals.

All Areas Speech Pathology complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the

Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), other privacy laws that govern how private sector health service

providers like All Areas Speech Pathology handle your personal information (including your

health information), Code of Conduct for unregistered health practitioners (2012) and Speech

Pathology Australia’s Code of Ethics (2010).

This Privacy Policy explains how All Areas Speech Pathology manages the personal information

we collect, use and disclose. All Areas Speech Pathology is a private speech pathology

company, under the sole directorship of Jane Beale.

2. HOW ALL AREAS SPEECH PATHOLOGY HANDLES YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

2.1 All Areas Speech Pathology’s Legal Obligations

In order to provide you with the health care services that you have requested, All Areas Speech

Pathology 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.

2.2 What information does All Areas Speech Pathology 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, health fund details and information about your health history and

family history. We require this information to assist the speech pathologist to diagnose and treat

you.

2.3 How does All Areas Speech Pathology 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, another health service

provider or school).

2.4 How does All Areas Speech Pathology use your information?

All Areas Speech Pathology uses your personal 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) Disclosure to other health professionals involved in your treatment

Your personal information will generally only be used by the speech pathologist involved in your

care, however on occasion your care may be provided by a number of health professionals

(for example: speech pathologist, occupational therapist and/or psychologist) working or

consulting together. We may disclose your information to these health professionals as part of

the process of providing your care and to other health professionals involved in your care.

(b) The referrer

All Areas Speech Pathology will usually send a letter or report to the referrer (i.e. your medical

practitioner)following our initial consultation with you or at other times, as required for your care.

If you do not wish us to provide a letter or report to the referrer, please 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.

Other uses and disclosures

In order to provide the best possible environment in which to treat you, 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 the Department of Veteran's Affairs and where required provide information to your health fund, Medicare or the Department of Veteran's Affairs to verify treatment provided to you; and
• 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.

(d) Other uses with your consent

With your consent we may also use your information for other purposes such as including you

on a marketing mail list, or 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.

(e) Special circumstances where consent is not required

We would like to make you aware we are required by law to disclose and/or collect

information in the following situations without consent:

• If there is a serious threat to the health or welfare of any person (including child protection concerns and any notifiable condition) under the Children and Young Persons Act 1998. Chapter 16A (Care and Protection) of this act allows information to be exchanged between prescribed bodies, of which speech pathologists are included.
• In the case of a court subpoena requesting information.

2.5 Access to and correction of your 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 Director (see details below) who

can give you more detailed information about All Areas Speech Pathology's access and

correction procedure. Please note that All Areas Speech Pathology may recover reasonable

costs associated with supplying this information to you.

Access may also be withheld where the client health record contains information about

another person and the privacy of that person may be unreasonably affected. In this kind of

situation, it may be possible to provide the information once the identifying details of the other

person have been removed or by contacting the other person to seek consent to the release

of their information, provided such contact does not cause privacy risks for the client.

2.6 Data Quality

All Areas Speech Pathology will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information

which we may collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

2.7 Data Security

All Areas Speech Pathology 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.

All Areas Speech Pathology will destroy or permanently de-identify any of your information

which is in its possession or control and which is no longer needed for the purpose for which it

was collected provided All Areas Speech Pathology is not required under an Australian law or

court/tribunal or otherwise to retain the information.

What to do if you have a complaint about privacy issues?

If:

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

(b) All Areas Speech Pathology 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 Director 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: The Director, All Areas Speech Pathology, PO Box 4619 Lakehaven NSW 2263

By email: info@aaspeech.com.au

By telephone: 1300 787 136

3. HOW ALL AREAS SPEECH PATHOLOGY HANDLES YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WHEN YOU VISIT OUR WEBSITE

This section of our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal information which is

collected from our website: https://aaspeech.com.au

This Privacy Policy applies to your use of our website and the use of any of the facilities on our

website.

3.1 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;
• send a written complaint or enquiry to our Director or another AASP staff member.

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 web-site management agent may use statistical data collected by our ISP to evaluate the

effectiveness of our web-site.

3.2 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 All Areas Speech Pathology website and other

websites may be lost.

3.3 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.

3.4 Use and disclosure

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

policy.