1. POLICY

Altmed Medical Center's management is devoted to safeguarding our patients' privacy inside our practice. The information gathered is kept totally private and is only used to provide medical and health services to patients.

2. PURPOSE

To ensure that patients who receive care from the clinic feel safe disclosing their health information to them. This policy informs patients on how their personal information is collected, used, and disclosed inside the practice, as well as the circumstances in which it may be disclosed to third parties.

3. SCOPE

This policy applies to all employees and patients of Altmed Medical Center.

4. PRACTICE PROCEDURE

The Practice will:

• Upon request, provide a copy of this policy.
• Ensure that employees follow the APP and respond to questions or issues in a timely manner.
• Implement practices, processes, and systems that are reasonable in the circumstances to guarantee compliance with the APP and to respond to enquiries or complaints.
• Personal information is collected for the primary goal of managing a patient's healthcare as well as for financial claims and payments.

Employee Accountability

The practice staff will take reasonable steps to ensure patients understand

• What data has been gathered and is currently being gathered
• Why is the information being gathered, and is it being collected because of a legal requirement?
• How will the data be used or disclosed?
• When and why do you need their permission?
• The Practice's methods for gaining access to and correcting information, as well as reacting to complaints about data breaches, including by making this policy available.

Patient Consent
The practice will only interpret and apply a patient’s consent for the primary purpose for which it was provided. The Practice staff must seek additional consent from the patient if the personal information collected may be used for any other purpose.

5. COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE

Altmed Medical Center understands that the information we gather is frequently sensitive, and as a result, we have embraced the privacy compliance requirements applicable to Altmed Medical Center to ensure that personal information is protected.

A patient's health information is shared across Altmed Medical Center medical practitioners for administrative and billing purposes, as well as to assure quality and continuity of patient care.

Collected personal information will include patient’s

• Names, addresses and contact details
• Healthcare identifyers
• Medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors.

A patient’s personal information may be held at the practice in various forms

• As paper records
• As electronic records
• As visuals ie xrays, ct scans, videos & photos
• As audio recordings

The practice’s procedures for collecting personal information is set out below:

• When patients come to the clinic for the first time, the practice staff collects personal and demographic information via registration. Patients are asked to read the collection statement they fill out as a new patient carefully.
• As a result, the practice's healthcare practitioners will acquire additional personal information while delivering medical services.
• Personal information may also be obtained from the patient's guardian or responsible person (when practical and appropriate) or from other healthcare professionals participating in the patient's care.

All personal information held by the practice is kept secure, whether in electronic form, in protected information systems, or in hard copy in a secured environment..

Personal information collected by Altmed Medical Center may be used or disclosed in the following instances:

• As required by law in cases of mandatory reporting of communicable diseases;
• for medical defense purposes;
• as required by law in cases of mandatory reporting of communicable diseases;
• It is either impractical to get patient consent or necessary to decrease or prevent a major harm to a patient's life, health, or safety, or it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious hazard to public health or safety.
• to aid in the search for a missing person
• The patient was informed of this at a consultation with the treating physician; as needed during the normal operation of the services supplied. i.e. for a reference to a medical professional or another source of health care;
• In order to conduct a private dispute resolution process.
• Third parties employed by or for the practice for business purposes such as accreditation or the supply of information technology may receive some information. This policy must be followed by these third parties.

Without full disclosure to the patient or the recipient, the cause for the information transfer, and full consent from the patient, the practice will not release personal information to any third party other than in the course of delivering medical services.

Without a need and without patient consent, the Practice will not release personal information to anybody outside of USA.

Without the patient's specific approval, the Practice will not utilize any personal information for direct marketing purposes.

All unsolicited information received by the practice is evaluated to determine if it should be kept, acted upon, or destroyed.

Altmed Medical Center will use all reasonable efforts to guarantee that personal information about patients is not released without their agreement.

6. DATA QUALITY

Patient information collected and retained in our records for the purpose of providing quality health care will be complete, accurate, and up to date at the time of collection.

7. DATA SECURITY

All due care will be taken to ensure the protection of patient privacy during the transfer, storage and use of personal health information.

8. ACCESS TO PATIENT INFORMATION AND CORRECTION

The following will apply with regard to accessing personal and private medical information by an individual:

• Individuals have the right to seek access to their own personal information, as well as a copy or a portion of the entire record, under the Federal Privacy Act, which took effect on December 20, 2001.
• Requests must be submitted in writing, and within 14 days, the patient will get an acknowledgement letter confirming the request, outlining whether it can be fulfilled, and an indication of any expenses connected with giving the information.
• When processing a request, the time required and photocopying expenses might be passed on to the patient who made the request.
• Within 30 days, you may expect to get information.
• Prior to December 20, 2001, requests for information will be evaluated by the practice.
• While a patient is not obliged to provide a justification for requesting the information, they may be requested to clarify the scope of the request.
• In rare cases, a request for information may be rejected, in which case the patient will be informed.
• Conditions may apply to material over which a doctor holds copyright, preventing or restricting future copying or publishing without the Doctor's consent.
• When the practice determines that personal information is inaccurate or out of date, it will take reasonable efforts to update it.
• Patients will be asked to confirm that the practice's personal information is valid and up to date on a regular basis.
• Patients may also request that the Practice amend or update their information, and such requests must be made in writing.
• The information stored by this clinic will be made available to another health practitioner if the patient requests it.

9. PARENTS/GUARDIANS AND CHILDREN

To protect the rights of a child’s privacy, access to a child’s medical information may at times be restricted for parents and guardians. Release of information may be referred back to the treating Doctor where there professional judgement and the law will be applied.

10. COMPLAINTS

The management of Altmed Medical Center understands the importance of confidentiality and discretion with the way we manage and maintain the personal information of our patients. The Practice takes complaints and concerns about the privacy of patient’s personal information seriously. Patients should express any privacy concerns in writing. The Practice will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with its complaint resolution process.

All employees of Altmed Medical Center are required to observe the obligations of confidentiality in the course of their employment and are required to sign Confidentiality Agreements.

In the instance where you are dissatisfied with the level of service provided within the clinic we encourage you to discuss any concerns relating to the privacy of your information with the Practice Manager or your Doctor.