About This Policy

Alacrity OT is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information.

We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information.

A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at https://www.oaic.gov.au/

Overview

Personal Information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual. Examples of Personal Information we may collect includes names, addresses, and contact details.

Sensitive information is defined in the Privacy Act to include information or opinion about such things as health information or an individual's racial or ethnic origin, including biometric information (for example, anthropometric measurements for a wheelchair referral).

Alacrity OT collects, uses, discloses, and holds personal and sensitive information for the purpose of providing community occupational therapy services and meeting legal record-keeping requirements. Some of these services and requirements include:

• Accepting and processing referrals.

• Creating and disseminating clinical reports to authorised parties.

• Liaising with third party suppliers (such as equipment suppliers or builders), in the course of providing a clinical service.

• Retaining patient health records for at least 7 years, per NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 No 71 (HRIP Act).

Consent & Collection of Your Personal Information

When you engage with us to provide a clinical service for you, we will seek consent from you (or an authorised representative) for Alacrity OT to collect, hold, and use your personal information to facilitate the delivery of our services.

Alacrity OT aims to only collect the personal or sensitive information it requires to carry out its functions and services in any given instance.

The main way Alacrity OT collects personal information about you is when you or your authorised representative (for example, your Aged Care Provider) provides it. For example, Alacrity OT collects personal information such as contact details and medical history when an occupational therapy service referral is made to us. Alacrity OT also collects personal information in the course of providing clinical services, such as interviewing you during an occupational therapist assessment.

We may also receive personal information about you from third parties in the course of providing clinical services such as from your Registered Aged Care Provider, your general practitioner, or other health services.

We may also collect multimedia (photographs, videos, or audio recordings) from you in the course of providing clinical services, where you have provided your consent for this to occur.

Collection Through the Alacrity OT Website

The Alacrity OT website is hosted on servers located outside of Australia (primarily in the United States). While the website host may collect basic analytical data, any sensitive or health information you submit via our online forms is protected by end-to-end encryption. This ensures that your personal information is securely transmitted directly to our protected business systems located in Australia and remains inaccessible to unauthorized third parties, including the website hosting provider.

Cookies are small data files transferred onto computers or devices by websites for record-keeping purposes and to improve your website user experience. Most browsers allow you to choose whether to accept cookies or not. If you do not wish to have cookies placed on your computer, please set your browser preferences to reject all cookies before accessing the Alacrity OT website. Please note however, that some data may still be collected separately by tools such as our web host analytics, even though you may have set your browser preferences to reject all cookies.

The information collected about you using cookies will not ordinarily be your personal information, because you will not be identified or reasonably identifiable to Alacrity OT from it.

Collection Through the Provision of Clinical Services

Alacrity OT collects personal and sensitive information to effectively provide clinical services. This information may be collected from you, an authorised representative (including your Registered Aged Care Provider), or a third party service involved in your clinical care (such as your general practitioner).

We collect and hold your personal and sensitive information on password-protected business devices, including laptops and mobile phones. These systems employ industry-standard security protocols to protect your information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorized access.

We hold your sensitive information as clinical records in secure, purpose-built clinical record software. This software includes secure cloud storage (to protect against data loss), multi-factor authentication, and data encryption. Clinical records (including cloud-stored records) are located on secure servers in Australia.

Anonymity

Alacrity OT is unable to provide services to you as an anonymous individual as it would be impractical for us / we would be unable to perform our services responsibly and in compliance with legal requirements.

Use of Your Information

Alacrity OT primarily uses your personal and sensitive information in the course of providing community occupational therapy services and meeting legal record-keeping requirements.
This includes:

• Accepting and processing service referrals.

• Informing clinical assessments performed by Alacrity OT.

• Creating and disseminating clinical recommendations and reports to authorised parties.

• Liaising with third party suppliers (such as equipment suppliers or builders), in the course of providing a clinical service.

• Liaising with health services (such as your general practitioner), in the course of providing a clinical service.

• Retaining patient health records for at least 7 years, per NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 No 71 (HRIP Act).

Your information may also be used for secondary purpose uses including invoicing, auditing business practices, handling a complaint, or notifying you of a data breach.

Direct Marketing

Alacrity OT does not use your personal or sensitive information to perform direct marketing to clients receiving occupational therapy services.

For businesses, we may use your business contact information to send you communications regarding potential partnerships with us or our significant operational updates. We only conduct direct marketing in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), relying on your consent, or where contact information is publicly available and marketing is relevant to your business. You can opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in our emails, replying with "Unsubscribe", or contacting us directly. We will process your opt-out request free of charge within 5 business days.

Disclosure

Alacrity OT may disclose your personal and sensitive information to effectively provide clinical services to you. This may include:

• Liaising with your authorised representative (including your Registered Aged Care Provider) regarding your referral and clinical service, in the course of providing the service.

• Liaising with third party suppliers (such as equipment suppliers or builders), in the course of providing a clinical service.

• Liaising with health services (such as your general practitioner), in the course of providing a clinical service.

Alacrity OT may make additional disclosures where necessary, for example to meet the request of a regulatory government body or to a third party relating to the management of a complaint or data breach. Wherever possible, your personal information will be provided in the form of either aggregated data that does not identify you or will be de-identified.  

In the event of a persistent or serious data breach, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme.

Destruction / Deletion of Personal Information

Alacrity OT retains clinical records for at least 7 years since final date of service, in accordance with the NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 No 71 (HRIP Act). Following this period, your sensitive information will be permanently deleted from our clinical record keeping software.

Any request to delete personal information will be assessed against legal obligations to hold the information. Records required for tax or clinical compliance cannot be deleted until the mandatory retention period has expired.

Accessing Personal information held by Alacrity OT

We acknowledge the right you (or an authorised representative) have to access or request amendment (for example, to correct inaccuracies) to personal and sensitive information about you held by Alacrity OT. We require you to make any request to access or amend information held by us in writing.

Alacrity OT will facilitate access and amendment requests that can be responsibly actioned under the Privacy Act (1988) or other relevant law. A request to access or amend information may be refused where providing access would:

• Be unlawful.

• Infringe on the privacy of other individuals.

• Relate to existing legal dispute resolution proceedings between you and Alacrity OT.

A request may also be declined if the request for access is determined to be frivolous or vexatious.

Creating a Complaint

If you wish to complain to Alacrity OT about the handling of your personal or sensitive information, you should first provide a complaint to us in writing. You can provide this complaint to us via our website or by emailing enquiries@AlacrityOT.com.au. You may also contact us to request assistance in lodging a complaint to us if required.

If Alacrity OT receives a complaint from you, we will strive to resolve your complaint internally. If we are unable to resolve your complaint satisfactorily, you may request the Federal Privacy Commissioner to have your complaint investigated. For more information about how you may lodge a complaint with the Federal Privacy Commissioner, please contact the Commissioner's hotline service on 1300 363 992.

Enquiries

For enquiries concerning this policy, you can contact us via email at enquiries@AlacrityOT.com.au or via the enquiry form on our website.