Benson Radiology (ABN 86 838 865 906) is committed to providing high quality medical imaging services to our patients. As part of this, Benson Radiology is committed to the protection of your personal information, including your health information and sensitive information.
This policy outlines our approach to privacy and how we collect, use or disclose personal information, including your health information and sensitive information.
This policy is available to view online on our website and within Benson Radiology’s branches.
We are bound by, and comply with, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This privacy policy applies to all Benson group companies.
Benson Radiology protects your privacy by:
- only obtaining information about your health, as is necessary for health purposes, in accordance with this privacy statement or with your consent
- keeping your health information secure
- giving you reasonable access to the information we have concerning you
- not disclosing this information outside of Benson Radiology without your consent or otherwise contrary to this privacy policy, except where legally authorised or required to do so
- allowing you to withdraw your consent at any stage
- providing you with a mechanism for complaints relating to privacy issues
- ensuring a process for working with the office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner to resolve any complaints that cannot be resolved directly with you
- providing procedures and instructions for staff to ensure that privacy processes are adhered to
- continuing to review and improve our privacy practices
We may collect and hold personal information (including sensitive information) that is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, the provision of medical imaging services.
We may also collect and hold personal information that is necessary or required:
- for us to engage with you in the usual course of our business; or
- for administrative and internal business purposes related to the services we provide to you.
The type of personal information we collect about you depends on who you are, our relationship with you and the nature of our interaction with you. The personal information collected includes:
- name, date of birth and gender
- financial information
- address (postal and email) and telephone numbers
- Medicare, pension, Veteran Affairs, health fund and health insurance details and identifiers
- medical history, test results (eg blood results), previous scans and other health information including where relevant to the examination of your family or social history
- clinical images and samples
- Motor Accident Compensation/Work Cover claim number and details
- law firm details if services relate to a legal claim
- medical provider/s details
- emergency contact details
- payment details
- any information relating to your employment (if you are a Benson Radiology team member), including employment histories, applications, pre-employment checks, qualifications, training records and information required by laws, regulations or standards
- other information required for Benson Radiology functions and activities
If we receive unsolicited personal information which we would not normally have collected and this information is not relevant to us providing a service to you, we will destroy or de-identify the information
By providing personal information to us, you consent to us collecting, using and disclosing your personal information as described in this privacy policy.
Normally we collect personal information directly from you verbally or by email, telephone, written correspondence or via our website (e.g. through our online booking system or when you request information or supply feedback). Where it is not reasonable or practical for us to collect this information directly from you, we may need to collect information about you from a third party. We may also collect information from a third party where your health may be at risk, and we need your personal information to provide you with emergency medical treatment.
Third parties from whom we may collect your personal information include:
- your health service provider, including healthcare professionals, hospitals, clinics and other pathology practices (e.g. imaging request forms sent to us, appointments made by the referrer)
- your medical provider(s)
- your representatives (e.g. your guardian, carer, a translator/intermediary and/or authorised representative (such as a family member or legal advisor)
- the My Health Record program operated by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health, if you have chosen to participate
- health insurers, law enforcement or other government instrumentalities
- employees, contracted service providers, students, trainees, suppliers and other individuals with whom we engage
- other sources we engage with as necessary to provide our services and in the course of our usual business operations.
You are not required to provide personal information to us. You may request not to identify yourself or to use a pseudonym when dealing with us. However, if you choose not to provide your personal (including sensitive health) information, we may be unable to provide you with the services you request.
We will not use or disclose your personal information for any purpose other than the primary purpose for which it was collected (or a related secondary purpose). These purposes may include:
- making an assessment of your health status
- understanding your needs so we can provide the medical services required
- sending out reminders regarding appointments
- offering you advice and information in relation to how our service will be or has been provided
- administering and managing the provision of internal services including billing and debt collection
- advising your medical provider on the findings of our service related to the information collected
- conducting customer satisfaction surveys and enhance the quality of our service
- responding to your enquiries or complaints
- engaging you (as a contractor) to provide products or services to us
- considering your application for employment with us
We may use and disclose personal information for purposes such as:
- responding to anticipated or existing legal actions
- legislative and regulatory compliance requirements, including liaising with regulatory or health authorities, as required by law
- contributing diagnostic imaging reports to your "My Health Record" in accordance with the guidelines of the Australian Government initiative and as instructed and controlled by you
- complying with enforcement related activities conducted by a law enforcement body (in this circumstance we will make a note of this disclosure)
- billing and debt recovery
- servicing and repair of equipment
- activities directly related to the provision of health services to you where you would reasonably expect disclosure
- purposes for which you have provided consent, or if we are permitted/required to do so by law.
We may also de-identify and/or aggregate personal information to carry out clinical research, quality assurance or analytics relating to customer service, health outcomes and other business activities
We may need to disclose personal information where reasonably necessary, including as may be relevant in the context of your treatment. This may include disclosing information to:
- your health service provider, including healthcare professionals, hospitals, clinics and other pathology practices
- hospital medical staff
- registered health professionals granted access to our secure referrer portal (Benson Connect)
- pathology professionals analysing samples taken during a medical imaging procedure
- your representatives (e.g. your guardian, carer, a translator/intermediary and/or authorised representative (such as a family member or legal advisor)
- other institutions directly related to your medical treatment such as health funds for billing, processing of claims and auditing purposes
- health services or enforcement bodies in situations where Benson Radiology is informed that there is a serious threat to life, health or safety
- court in response to a subpoena or to a “notice of non-party disclosure”
- our professional advisors (such as auditors and legal advisors)
- local and offshore contractors whom we have partnered with, including those that relate to cross border disclosure, to provide services to our business operations
- consultant medical specialists or other health professionals who are involved in your ongoing health care and who have been requested to provide further advice on your medical condition.
We may disclose personal information to a ‘responsible person’ (as defined in the Privacy Act 1988) if it is necessary in order to provide appropriate treatment, care or for compassionate reasons where there is a reasonable expectation we would do so, unless you have requested otherwise. We do not sell your personal or health information
We may engage third party providers to store, access or use data we collect, including personal information in order to provide services to us relating to the provision of medical imaging services. In doing so we will take reasonable steps to ensure that these third party service providers are bound by appropriate privacy requirements, substantially similar to those that bind Benson Radiology.
We have arrangements with a third party partner to provide medical imaging reporting services in some urgent after hours situations which may require the transfer and storage of personal information outside of Australia (mostly the United Kingdom). Our third party partner is an Australian based company and is bound by the same privacy requirements that bind Benson Radiology.
We have arrangements in place for some patient reports to be typed outside of Australia (the Philippines). Our third party provider for these services is an Australian owned company that is bound by the same privacy requirements that bind Benson Radiology .
We also have partnerships with third party providers based in New Zealand and Canada for the maintenance and upgrading of our radiology information systems and picture archiving and communications systems. We do not store patient data overseas however these partners may connect to Benson Radiology to perform maintenance or upgrade works on our systems.
If you are participating in a clinical trial, your personal information may be disclosed overseas to the country in which the clinical trial is being conducted.
We securely store personal information in hard paper and electronically in accordance with applicable regulatory and legislative requirements and good business practice. If Benson Radiology no longer needs, or is required, to retain personal information, we will take reasonable steps in the circumstances to securely destroy the personal information or will ensure that the personal information is de-identified.
We take all reasonable steps to ensure personal information is protected from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including by implementing the following technical and organisations measures:
- ensuring our staff are bound by our confidentiality policy and are aware of, and receive training on, our privacy policy
- implementing security procedures and policies for access to our business premises and within our offices, as well as IT security procedures and policies including password protection (which is regularly changed), firewalls and site monitoring
- only allowing access to personal information where we are satisfied the individual requesting access meets identification requirements
All personal and health information will be disposed of in a secure manner once retained for the period required by law.
We (or our authorised third party contractors) may use your personal information for direct marketing that is related to our services, in compliance with applicable laws. For example, we may contact our referring practitioners to keep them up to date with new techniques or services we are providing.
You may choose to opt out of direct marketing communications by contacting our Public Relations Manager using the contact details set out below if. If you request not to receive direct marketing, please note that we will still contact you to provide you with information in respect of your ongoing health care.
If requested, we will provide access to the Personal Information we hold about you. Access may be refused in certain circumstances (such as where providing access would be likely to have an unreasonable impact on another individual’s privacy). If your request is denied, a written reason will be given to you in writing including mechanisms to make a complaint about our refusal. To protect your privacy, we will need you to verify your identity before providing access to your information. We may recover reasonable costs associated with supplying this information to you (e.g. to provide copies of films or reports) and we will inform of any costs before they are incurred.
In the specific case of obtaining access to:
- your imaging results, we believe it is best for you to consult your referring health professional as this allows the results to be explained in the context of any further testing and your ongoing health program. Reports and images are issued to your health professional either secured in a film packet/envelope, by fax (when requested by that health professional) or via secure electronic means to the health professional’s practice software.
- your films, Benson Radiology provides a confidential film delivery service. If this is unacceptable to you, please arrange with our staff to collect your films. Generally, copies of reports and images will be given directly to you unless you otherwise direct. If you intend to have another person collect your films on your behalf, you must provide written consent to this collection, including the name of the person collecting your films.
a copy of your report, you must attend a Benson Radiology branch so we can identify you as the patient and verify your personal details including sighting a photo ID (e.g. drivers licence). Reports cannot be emailed, faxed or posted
Benson Radiology takes reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete, up-to-date, relevant and not misleading. To assist us, please advise us of any errors in your personal information and update us with any changes to your personal information.
You may also request that we correct or update the personal information we hold about you if you consider it to be inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. We may need to verify your personal details, including sighting a photo ID (e.g. drivers licence). Where possible, we will notify relevant third parties (such as health organisations) that we have disclosed your personal information to of these corrections. In some circumstances requests to correct personal information may be denied. If your request is denied, a written reason will be given to you including mechanisms to make a complaint about our refusal
Our website may use cookies that allow Benson Radiology to track and report website traffic and gather anonymised statistics relating to the management of our website, but this data will not reflect any identifying information. These analytics may include, but are not limited to, your internet service provider, domain name, browser type and the pages you visit.
Our website and our email communications may contain links to third-party websites. We do not control third-party websites or any of their content and if you visit these websites, they will be governed by their own terms of use (including privacy policies). You should satisfy yourself of the personal information handling policies of third-party website operators.
Benson Radiology provides registered health professionals and hospital medical staff a secure web-based password-protected portal to access patient images and reports. Your personal information, including sensitive health information, may be made available through this portal to your referring health professional. With your express consent, or the express consent of another person acting for you (such as a parent acting for a child), or in situations where Benson Radiology is informed that there is a serious threat to life, health or safety, we may also provide access to other health professionals.
Users of this service are subject to an obligation to collect health information with your consent and, in many cases, are bound by codes of practice that deal with obligations of professional confidentiality relevant to their profession.
Before a health professional is granted online access they must accept the terms set out in a user access agreement stating that the information is required in order to provide a medical service and that it will not otherwise be used or knowingly shared or disclosed. Our systems track, record and store all access activity on every patient file.
You are welcome to ask any questions regarding the way Benson Radiology manages personal information, make a complaint about the handling of your personal information or request access to your personal information. Please direct such queries and complaints to our Public Relations Manager using the contact details set out below.
Your complaint will be investigated, and a response will be sent to you as quickly as possible (normally within 30 days of receipt of the complaint).
If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the office of the Australian Information Commissioner via the following methods:
Privacy commissioner number: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Or visit the website of the office of the Australian Information Commissioner: http://www.oaic.gov.au/
This policy may change from time to time; however, the most recent version is always available on the Benson Radiology website
Public Relations Manager
Benson Radiology
4 Greenhill Road
Wayville SA 5034
Phone (08) 8239 0550
Email: feedback@bensonradiology.com.au
Web: bensonradiology.com.au