Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy sets out how Anaesthetic Group uses and protects any information that you provide on this website or to our company. It is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect and use the personal information you provide to us and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our site and our products and services.

From time to time we may make changes to our policy, processes and systems in relation to how we handle your personal information. We will update this Privacy Policy to reflect any changes. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

In summary: Anaesthetic Group does not store completed patient questionnaires.
The moment you hit submit your patient questionnaire is sent to your Anaesthetist and deleted from our servers. We believe that the best way to protect your data, is to not store it in the first place!

Introduction

We are committed to protecting the privacy of patient information and handling your personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, the Australian Privacy Principles and relevant State and Territory privacy legislation (referred to as privacy legislation).

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and disclose your personal information, how you may access that information and how you may seek the correction of any information. It also explains how you may make a complaint about a breach of privacy legislation.

What Information Do We Collect?

When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.

1. Personal Information You Choose to Provide

Patient Information

We receive your information to provide to your Anaesthetist. This information may include your name, date of birth, gender, health information, family history, payment details, contact details and any other information you choose to provide. This information may be stored on our computer system. We collect information over the internet if you transact with us online.

All patient pre-op questionnaires are received securely on our Australian based website and sent directly to the Anaesthetist you have selected. Once you submit this form, ALL information is then promptly deleted from our website. Anaesthetic Group DOES NOT STORE your pre-op questionnaire.

We will treat your personal information as strictly private and confidential. We will only use or disclose it to your selected Anaesthetist.

Anaesthetist Registration Information

You will provide us information about yourself and your practices when you register to be a customer of Anaesthetic Group, register for certain services, or register for email newsletters and alerts. You may also provide additional comments on how you see Anaesthetic Group servicing your needs and interests.

Patient Experience Surveys

The purpose of Patient Experience Surveys is to identify areas of your Anaesthetist’s practice which may be improved, focusing on their professional development. Your feedback will remain anonymous. Feedback information will only be used for the purpose for which it was collected – for example we may also use your de-identified feedback in summary form to help other Anaesthetist’s practice.

Other / Email Information

If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses.

2. Website Use Information

Similar to other commercial websites, our website utilises a standard technology called “cookies” (see explanation below, “What Are Cookies?”) and Web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, actions taken, your IP address, time spent at our website, and the websites visited just before and just after our website.

How Do We Use the Website Information That You Provide to Us?

Broadly speaking, we use the information for purposes of administering and expanding our business activities, providing customer service and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers.

Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. You may notify us at any time if you do not wish to receive these offers by emailing us at privacy(at)anaestheticgroup.com.au. Please state your name and email address. Please allow 7-10 business days for cancelled registrations to take place.

What Are Cookies?

A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a website, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.

How Do We Use Information We Collect from Cookies?

As you use our website, the site uses its cookies to differentiate you from other users so your details are only available to you. In some cases, we also use cookies to prevent you from seeing unnecessary advertisements or requiring you to log in more than is necessary for security. Cookies, in conjunction with our web server’s log files, allow us to calculate the aggregate number of people visiting our website and which parts of the site are most popular. This helps us gather feedback in order to constantly improve our website and better serve our customers. Cookies generally do not allow us to gather any personal information about you and we do not generally store any personal information that you provided to us in your cookies.

Sharing Information with Third Parties

Anaesthetic Group will only share your personal information with your selected anaesthetist. We will not share or sell any of your personal information gathered on our site to other business partners.

We may indirectly disclose information about you to outside contractors to carry out activities on our behalf, such as an IT service provider. We impose security and confidentiality requirements on how they handle your personal information. Outside contractors are required not to use information about you for any purpose except for those activities we have asked them to perform.

We may also use third parties to facilitate our business, including, credit card processing or analysing data. In connection with these offerings and business operations, our partners and other third parties may have access to minimal personal information for use in connection with business activities. These companies are not authorised to retain, share, store, or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Your personal information remains strictly confidential. Anaesthetic Group does not resell any information about our customers to third parties. All medical data is always collected securely and promptly destroyed.

How Do We Protect Your Information and Secure Information Transmissions?

When you use our website, rest assured that your security and privacy has been actively protected. Our secure server software uses industry standard encryption technology to safeguard your transaction. It encrypts your personal information as it travels over the internet. We have many security systems in place.

Personal information that we hold is protected by:
– securing our website, servers and premises;
– placing passwords and varying access levels on databases to limit access and protect electronic information from unauthorised interference, access, modification and disclosure; and
– providing locked cabinets and rooms for the storage of physical records.

However it should be noted that no information you ever transmit over the Internet can be guaranteed to be secure. We cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us, or receive from us. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk. Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personal information that we collect will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?

You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing privacy(at)anaestheticgroup.com.au. There may be a fee for the administrative costs of retrieving and providing you with copies of your medical records.

Certain Disclosures

We may disclosure your personal information if required to do so by law or subpoena or if we believe that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the law or comply with legal process served on us or Affiliated Parties; (b) protect and defend our rights and property, the Site, the users of the Site, and/or our Affiliated Parties; (c) act under circumstances to protect the safety of users of the Site, us, or third parties.

What About Other Websites Linked to Our Website?

We are not responsible for the practices employed by Web sites linked to or from our Web site nor the information or content contained therein. Often links to other Web sites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our Web site.

Please remember that when you use a link to go from our website to another website, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including websites which have a link on our website, is subject to that website’s own rules and policies. Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.

Your Consent

By using our website you consent to our collection and use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on our website to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.

If you have objections to this Privacy Policy, you should not access or use this website.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about the privacy of your personal information, we request that you contact us in writing to privacy(at)anaestheticgroup.com.au. Upon receipt of a complaint we will consider the details and attempt to resolve it in accordance with our complaints handling procedures.

If you are dissatisfied with our handling of a complaint or the outcome you may make an application to the Australian Information Commissioner or the Privacy Commissioner in your State or Territory.

This Privacy Policy is current from 20th May 2018. From time to time we may make changes to our policy, processes and systems in relation to how we handle your personal information. We will update this Privacy Policy to reflect any changes. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

Contact

Please direct any queries, complaints, requests for access to records to: privacy(at)anaestheticgroup.com.au or by mail to
Privacy Officer, Anaesthetic Group, PO Box 4181, Royal North Shore Hospital NSW 2065