Health Information Privacy statement
Your personal health information and how it is used.
CONSENT TO COLLECT PATIENT HEALTH INFORMATION
Patients directly consent to health information (patient data) being collected when they sign an enrolment form with their family doctor or visit a GP practice.
Your health information will be shared with others involved in your healthcare.
This helps to improve care for individuals, and with the health information from many people collected together it can be used to improve health services, care for other patients and future generations as well as community wellbeing.
Patient data is used for the following reasons:
• To measure and improve the quality of healthcare
• To understand the frequency and severity of common major health problems
• To ensure that the differences in health status between different population groups are reduced
• To identify health prevention and promotion strategies
• To advocate for changes and improvement to health care funding and delivery
• To support some health research, subject to approval by an ethics committee
• To meet contract requirements with the Ministry of Health needed to obtain funding to reduce the cost of your GP visits
WHAT INFORMATION IS COLLECTED?
• Information about you (name, date of birth, gender, address, ethnicity, citizenship, NHI number)
• Information about your health and your medical conditions and measurements
• Information about health services that are being provided to you e.g. medications, immunisations, health screening, lab results
• Information about the financial transactions around consultation charges
Information is not collected from your consultation notes (the progress notes your GP made on your file regarding your visits).
SECURITY & PRIVACY OF PATIENT DATA
A PHO is a Primary Health Organisation. Patient data is sent securely to the PHO which stores this information in a data warehouse. The data provides a single source of information for practice clinicians. It is able to produce reports that help manage and improve services for patients.
Some health information we collect and generate is stored electronically by cloud service providers located in Australia. This information may also be processed (but not stored) on cloud servers located in other overseas countries. This information is encrypted at all times and these providers comply with internationally recognised security standards.
Information is also sent to the Ministry of Health to allocate funding subsidies which reduce the cost of GP visits.
Robust protocols and processes have been developed for collecting and storing this data to make sure it is kept safe and protected.
Our processes are fully compliant with the Privacy Act 1993 and Health
Information Privacy Code.
CONSENT OPTIONS
If you do not consent to health information such as medical conditions, medications and lab results being collected, then you may ‘opt-off’ by letting your practice know.
OUT OF AUCKLAND ENROLMENT POLICY
We do not enrol patients residing outside of Auckland due to regional funding arrangements, logistical difficulties with laboratory tests and referrals, and our requirement to provide face-to-face care when clinically indicated.
PAYMENT POLICY
To help us provide the best services to you and your whānau we make the following requests:
That you make payment on the day of your appointment. If you do not make payment at the time of your appointment, we will email your invoice to you so you can use online banking to pay your account. Please do this as soon as possible after seeing the Doctor or Nurse.
Our bank details are:
· ANZ Account – Four Kauri Medical Limited - 060284 0075169 50
· Please add your full name/invoice number as a reference.
· Please pay this invoice within 7 days.
Payment difficulties: If you need assistance, we offer payment plans with a minimum of $5 per week. Please contact us to arrange this.
Late payment fee: Accounts not paid within 7 days may incur a $5 monthly late payment fee.
Accounts over 90 days past due: We reserve the right to:
Refer your debt to a collection agency and share your name, address, and phone number for this purpose only.
Disenroll you from our practice, as ongoing unpaid debt represents a breakdown in the therapeutic patient-practitioner relationship.
PRESCRIPTIONS POLICY
Repeat prescription requests are always checked by a doctor. Sometimes you may be asked to make an appointment before a prescription can be raised.
Your prescription request will be processed within 2 – 3 business days. (There may be a delay over weekends and public holidays so please remember to order in advance)
Same day urgent scripts are available for an extra $5 fee. Remember to tell us if your request is urgent.
Scripts requested after 3 pm will be reviewed on the next business day.
MISSED APPOINTMENTS POLICY
We do understand that there are times where emergencies, work obligations and family may prevent you from attending an appointment but ask that you always phone us at least one hour prior to your scheduled appointment so we can reschedule you, and offer your original appointment to another patient.
Failure to do so will result in being charged the full cost of an appointment. Please note that funded patients, such as children or pregnant women receiving free care, will be charged a $5 administration fee for missed appointments.
ZERO TOLERNACE POLICY
Four Kauri Family Medical practices a zero tolerance policy when it comes to any verbal, aggressive or violent behavior toward staff or patients.
If you are abusive or aggressive toward staff and/or other patients, you WILL be removed from our enrolled patients list.
We ask that you please treat all our Practice Staff members respectfully at all times.