Privacy Policy

Purpose

When you engage with HammondCare services, we may need to process information about you. The type of information that we collect will depend on the area of the business that you interact with or the type of health, aged care or other services that you use. 

When will we collect your Information?

We may collect your personal and sensitive information throughout your interaction or engagement with HammondCare and our services. For example, this might include:

For Health and Aged Care Service: Information collected when:

• Advertising information to you and communicating with you
• You enquire about residential care, home care, independent living, health care and other services
• You receive care and support from HammondCare and or/ live in a HammondCare service
• You receive dementia consultancy services from the HammondCare Dementia Centre
• You undertake training through the Dementia Centre or its Registered Training Organisation

For Employees, contractors and other engagements: Information collected when:

• Advertising information to you and communicating with you
• You apply for employment with HammondCare
• You update your employment or contractual relationship with HammondCare
• You contract or supply goods and services to HammondCare

For Foundation, Research and Other Engagements: Information collected when:

• Advertising information to you and communicating with you
• You make a donation
• You participate in research that HammondCare is undertaking
• You attend a conference delivered by HammondCare
• You purchase or download a publication on a HammondCare website
• You use the “Contact Us” form on the website or the ‘Tell Us About It’ form in our services
• You elect to be a subscriber to a HammondCare mailing list

What type of information do we collect?

The types of personal or health information which we obtain from you will depend on the nature of your relationship with HammondCare – whether, for example, you are a resident, client, patient, donor, job applicant, contractor, supplier or staff member.

The types of health or personal information we may collect about you include your:

• Name, signature, address, phone number or date of birth
• Sensitive information such as your religious beliefs or ethnic orientation to help tailor care
• (if relevant) Passive monitoring data to support care and services (e.g. through non-invasive infrared systems in our residential care services)
• Government identifiers (such as your Medicare number)
• Medical and personal history
• Emergency contact details and legal representative or other representative contact details
• Bank and credit card details
• Employment history and educational background

With appropriate consent, we may also collect the contact details and other relevant information of your nominated representative/s (e.g. an elected family member), your appointed Guardian (someone with legal authority to manage matters related to your personal or health) and/or your Power of Attorney (someone with legal authority to manage your financial affairs). 

Any new personal or health information you give to us may be added to our records. For example, we may collect new information on each occasion that you interact with HammondCare. You do not have to give us the information we request from you, however not doing so may impact on our ability to provide you with the goods or services you require. If you are concerned about the information we request from you, please speak with a member of our team.

How do we protect and store your information?

The security of your information is important to us. We maintain appropriate technical, administrative, and physical measures that are designed to protect your information from unauthorised access, theft, disclosure, modification, or loss. These steps include:

• Storing paper records securely
• Ensuring our storage units, cupboards and buildings are secure
• Only accessing personal information on a need-to-know basis and by authorised personnel
• Monitoring system access to ensure that appropriate access is supported through authenticated credentials, coupled with multi-factor authentication
• Regularly updating and auditing our storage and data security systems
• Monthly systems patching to ensure minimal vulnerabilities

We regularly review our security measures to consider new safeguards, technology and methods for protection.

How do we use your information?

We use the information we collect to engage with you. For HammondCare residents, clients and patients, your information is used to provide personalised services to you, including care and medical services. For staff, donors, researchers, suppliers and contractors, your information is used to facilitate our interaction with you and/or to enable us to contract with you.

HammondCare limits the use your personal or health information for:

• The primary purpose(s) for which you have provided the information
• A secondary purpose related to the primary purpose(s) of collection
• A purpose you have consented to
• A purpose otherwise permitted by law

When and why do we share your information to third parties?

We may share your personal information to third parties in circumstances where you would reasonably expect us to disclose your information. For example, we may share your information to:

• Your nominated representative, your Guardian and/or your Power of Attorney
• Your GP or other health professionals involved in your care
• State and Federal authorities (including NSW Ministry of Health, Department of Health and the Health, Aged Care, NDIS and other relevant regulators)
• Our third-party services (for example, administrative or billing system, contractors that provide lawn mowing or repair services etc)
• Our professional service advisors
• A court or legal institution in accordance with our legal obligations and rights

We don’t sell any of your information to anyone. We also require our partners and third parties to follow rules about how they can and cannot use and disclose the information that we provide.

You can tell us not to share your information to any specific person or entity. We will speak with you about the impact of not sharing your information – for example, if it will impact on our ability to provide or facilitate provision of the goods or services you require.

How long do we keep your records?

We retain information for as long as needed to provide our services to you and for other purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We also retain information to comply with contractual and legal obligations, when we have a legitimate business interest to do so, and for the exercise or defence of legal claims.

The retention periods will be different depending on the relevant jurisdiction (state or territory), the type of information we are keeping, the purposes for which we use the information and any legal obligations that we may have. If you have any questions about how long we keep your records, you can reach out to a member of our team.

How to access your information?

You have the right to both ask:

• For access to information that we hold about you
• That we correct information we hold about you

If you ask, we must give you access to your information (for example, we can arrange for you to view your records with a member of our staff) and take reasonable steps to correct it if we consider it is incorrect unless there is a law that allows or request us not to. If you wish to make a request to access the information we hold about you; you should make a request by contacting us or speaking to a member of our team. We always aim to respond within 30 days.

We will notify you in writing and explain our reasons if we refuse to give you access to, or correct, your personal information.

How to contact HammondCare with questions?

If at any time our purpose for collecting your personal information is not clear, please raise your concerns with the person collecting your information or contact us at privacy@hammond.com.au. We will respond within a reasonable period and, where possible, in the manner requested.

If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, you can contact the Australian Information Commissioner’s hotline on 1300 363 992 or on +61 2 9284 9749 from outside Australia. Alternatively, you can send written enquiries to enquiries@oaic.gov.au or GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001.