Privacy Statement
1. We respect your privacy
At Dental Boutique, we take your privacy seriously.
We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and the Health Records Act Victoria 2001 (Vic). Your privacy and maintaining the confidentiality of your personal information is important to us.
The privacy policy (Privacy Policy) outlines how we use and manage your personal information.
As we plan to ensure our Privacy Policy remains current, this policy is subject to change. We may modify this policy at any time, in our sole discretion, and all modifications will be effective immediately upon our posting of the modifications on our website.
2. Definitions
In this Privacy Policy,
Dental Boutique (we, us, our) means Dental Boutique Group Pty Ltd (trading as Dental Boutique), their related entities and bodies corporate, and the associated dental practices.
You or Your means individual patients or customers.
Personal information has the same meaning that it has under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
3. Collection of Information
3.1. Information We Collect
We will only collect your personal information that is necessary to provide you with appropriate dental or other services.
The personal information that we collect may include:
● name, address, telephone and email contact details;
● personal details such as age and gender;
● details of previous dentists you’ve been a patient of;
● your Medicare number;
● financial information (for example, credit card numbers to assist in the administration of payments for dental services);
● and sensitive information including:
o medical history;
o family medical history; and
o current health and dental assessment.
3.2. How we collect your information
We may collect personal and/or health information directly from you or your authorised representatives, in a number of ways, including when you or your authorised representatives:
● complete the booking or contact forms on our website;
● share information directly with our staff or our associated medical practitioners who provides services to you;
● subscribe to our newsletters or other marketing materials; or
● complete forms, contact us via email, phone, or during a clinic visit
● use our services or purchase products from us.
We may also collect health information from a third party such as a health fund or referrer, or a publicly available source, but only if you provide them with consent to such collection or would reasonably expect us to collect their health information from the third party, or if collection is necessary to provide the patient with appropriate health care or services.
4. Use and Disclosure
The primary purpose of collecting your personal information is to deliver, manage and administer our services effectively while ensuring the efficient and sustainable operation of our business. In the course of these processes, we may disclose your personal information to our related or associated entities on a confidential basis. In addition, your personal information may be used for other purposes, including:
● To address accounts to you
● To provide dental and related services to you;
● To provide health care or for purposes directly related to providing you with dental or health care;
● To write to you about our services and any issues affecting your dental or health care;
● To administer your invoicing for dental and/or medical services;
● To administer and process your credit card payments
● To process health insurance claims;
● To collect unpaid invoices via an external collection agency;
● To maintain and administer your patient records at a Dental Boutique practice;
● To answer your enquiries and deliver customer services to you;
● To address and resolve complaints;
● To comply with laws and regulations.
We may use your deidentified information and data in a general sense:
● for research, evaluation and benchmarking purposes, including creating marketing statistics, identifying user demands and meeting customer needs generally; and/or
● to improve our website and services.
4.1. Use of your health information
We only use health information for the purposes of providing you with dental services or health care or for purposes directly related to providing you with dental services or health care.
We will not use your health information for any other purpose unless one of the following applies:
a. You have consented;
b. The other purpose is directly related to providing you with dental or health services and you would reasonably expect that your information may be used for that purpose (for example, the practice may disclose your health information to another health service provider for the purpose of providing you with dental or health care); or
c. The use of your health information is required or authorised by law. This may include for the purposes of contact tracing, or any other purposes under directions from the state’s Chief Health Officer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
4.2. Disclosure to Third Parties
To deliver our services, ensure efficient business operations and comply with applicable laws and regulations, we may need to share your information with third parties, including in the following circumstances:
● to government and regulatory bodies;
● to your emergency contact in an emergency;
● to any person or entity acting on our behalf;
● to our professional advisors;
● to dentists, dental specialists and other healthcare professionals, for the purpose of seeking a second opinion or a referral, where you have consented to obtaining the second opinion or the referral;
● to third party health benefit providers and insurance companies to help process claims for reimbursement or payment of all or part of your dental treatment costs;
● to review the services for the purpose of quality of our services;
● to protect our copyright, trade marks and other legal rights;
● to a purchaser or potential purchaser under an agreement to maintain confidentiality, where there is a change of control in one of our businesses (whether by merger, sale, or otherwise), or a sale or transfer of its assets; and/or
● where disclosure is required by law.
To the extent that we do share your personal information with a third party, we would only do so if that party has agreed to comply with our privacy standards as described in this Privacy Policy.
4.3. Direct Marketing
Our marketing functions support our growth and development and provide you with information about services offered by us.
Our practice may use your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing, such as sending newsletters. However, we will not on-sell your personal information.
We understand that you may not wish to receive marketing materials. If you would prefer not to receive such information, a request can easily be made to the Privacy Officer or another staff member of us.
5. Data Quality
We take steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate, up to date and complete. These steps include maintaining and updating personal and health information when you attend the practice, or you advise us that your personal information has changed.
We keep hard-copy and/or electronic records and take reasonable steps to protect those records against loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure, or other misuse.
To the extent we keep hard-copy records, we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that hard-copy records are kept in locked files and there are security processes in place regarding computer access. We have taken reasonable steps to ensure that electronic data is backed-up.
After a period of seven years (and if you attended the practice as a child, you have reached the age of 25) we may destroy your records in accordance with applicable laws.
6. Data Security
Given the inherent insecurity of information passed over the Internet, we do not currently support the transmission of personal health information to or from you over the Internet. If you send any personal health information to us via the Internet, we cannot guarantee its security.
7. Employer/employee responsibilities
As an employer, we collect personal information related to employment and human resource management.
All staff employed by us are required to undergo training to understand their responsibilities in maintaining your privacy and to comply with privacy laws and contract obligations to maintain the security of the data and protect your personal information.
8. Access and Correction
8.1. Your right to access and correct your personal information
You may request access to your health or personal information we hold, or request that we change that information. We will allow access or make the changes unless we consider that there is a sound reason under the Privacy Act, or other relevant laws to withhold the information, or not make the changes.
Requests for access or correction must be in writing and directed to our Privacy Officer. If you have any questions, the Privacy Officer can be contacted during business hours.
8.2. Correcting your information
To ensure we meet your needs effectively, it is essential that the information we hold about you is accurate.
If your details change or you believe any information we hold is incorrect, incomplete, or outdated, please contact us to update it.
9. Cookies and analytics
We use cookies to collect data that helps us improve the functionality and efficiency of our website and services.
You can choose if and how a cookie will be accepted by configuring your preferences and options in your browser. For example, you can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to reject cookies. However, if you decide not to display cookies, then you may not be able to gain access to all the content and facilities of this website.
We also use Google and/or other third-party service providers to serve ads on our behalf across the Internet and sometimes on our website. They may collect anonymous or deidentified information about your visits to our website (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number), and your interaction with our products and services. They may also use information about your visits to this and other websites to target advertisements for goods and services in order to provide more relevant advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.
10. Our Website and Third Party Links
Our website may contain links to third party websites. These links are meant for your convenience only. Links to third party websites do not constitute sponsorship, endorsement or approval of these websites. Please exercise caution when providing personal information to any external websites linked to our website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of other websites or external websites linked to this website.
11. Non-personal Information
Any non-personal information, communications and material you send to our website or to us, or which we obtain from third parties without promises of confidentiality, may be kept, used and disclosed by us on a non-confidential basis. We are free to use and reproduce any such information freely, and for any purpose whatsoever. Specifically, we will be free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques contained in such information for any purpose, including developing, manufacturing or marketing products.
12. Sending information overseas
In the course of providing our services and maintaining your records, we may disclose your personal information to service providers or related entities such as, off-site electronic data storage providers, transcription service providers, professional indemnity insurers, marketing agencies or other third party service entities. These recipients may be located offshore.
Where practicable, we may inform you about where your information is sent. However, at all times we will take reasonable steps to ensure compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to any off-shore transfer of your information.
13. Non-disclosure of information
Although we respect your right to privacy, if you choose not to provide us with information relevant to your care, we may not be able to provide a service to you or the service we are asked to provide may not be appropriate for your needs.
Importantly, you could suffer some harm or other adverse outcome if you do not provide information relevant to your care.
14. Complaints
We take your privacy seriously. If you suspect there has been or may have been a breach of your privacy, you can complain directly to our Privacy Officer.
In the event of a privacy breach, we will comply with applicable guides or guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner for the handling of privacy breaches.
For more information about Privacy laws, or to raise concerns about any matter not satisfactorily resolved with us you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au or ph. 1300 363 992).
Privacy and general complaints about your care can also be directed to the Health Services Commissioner (www.hcc.vic.gov.au or ph: 1300 582 113).
15. Enquiries
We review and update this Privacy Policy on a regular basis. For further information about our management of privacy, please contact our Privacy Officer.
Phone: 1300 32 76453
Email: Compliance@dentalboutique.com.au