Practice billing principals
Childs Road Doctors is a mixed-billing practice with full payment of fees required at the time of consultation.
Current Health Care cards, Pension concession cards, seniors health cards and Medicare cards must be presented at every appointment. Please note that these will be checked, and our records updated accordingly.
For your convenience we accept cash, eftpos or credit card. Personal cheques are not accepted. We do not accept Diners Club, or Amex.
We offer bulk-billing to:
- Children aged 16 years and younger
- DVA card holders
- Healthcare card holders
- Pensioner concession card holders
- Commonwealth seniors health card holders
- Patients with appointments related to a care plan who are registered under the MyMedicare program with our clinic (does not include mental health plans)
Communication Policy
There are multiple ways in which we communicate with patients and third parties.
Face to face
In person consultations with a doctor, nurse or interactions with other staff members
Telephone
Our telephone lines are open from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday and 8am to 12pm on Saturday.
The front desk team might employ a triage method to evaluate how critical a patient’s needs and issues are. They will conduct a three-step check to confirm that the correct patient file corresponds to the caller. It is important to understand that speaking directly to the doctor during the call might not always be feasible. Instead, a secure message will be relayed to the doctor, who will get back to you as soon as they can. Exceptions could be considered in urgent situations, and a record of this will be documented in your file.
Our staff endeavour to respond to email messages received during business hours within 24 hours. If you have an issue that requires urgent attention we request that you contact the practice via telephone.
Fax
Faxes that are received related to a patient are placed into our clinical software and sent to the relevant doctor for review. After being reviewed and actioned it is imported into the patient’s file.
Any urgent patient related faxes are immediately handed to the doctor or if that doctor is not available another doctor in the practice will review the fax. All non-patient related faxes are given to the relevant staff member.
If we are unable to reach you via phone or email, a letter may be sent to your address. We may also occasionally send letters to your address to inform you of any changes in the clinic or any extra services being held or performed at our clinic.
Letters received by the practice are scanned and placed in the clinical software for the doctor to review. After being reviewed and actioned it is imported into the patient’s file.
Website
Our website is updated regularly and contains the practice contact details, location, opening hours and information regarding fees and services offered. You are able to book appointments via our website and can find the after-hours doctor service details if you require medical assistance outside of our working hours.
Communicating with patients with special needs
A contact list of translator and interpreter services and services for patients with a disability is maintained, updated regularly and readily available to all staff at reception. Please let your doctor or the reception staff know if you require these services so the proper arrangements can be made.
Medical Assistance Outside Office Hours
If you require medical assistance outside of our opening hours:
- Contact 13 SICK National Home Doctor (13 74 25)
- In case of emergencies, please call 000 for an ambulance.
Childs Road Doctors Privacy Policy
This policy is to inform patients about the way we collect and utilise their personal information, including health-related data, within our practice. It also outlines the situations in which we might share this information with third parties.
Patient consent
By registering as a patient at our practice, you consent to our health practitioners to access your personal information to ensure optimal healthcare provision. Access to your information is limited to authorised members of the practice who require it. If there is a need to use your information for any other purpose, we will seek your additional consent.
Our primary objective in collecting, using, storing and sharing your personal information is to manage and provide healthcare services to you.
Types of Information Collected
The information we gather about you includes:
- Name, date of birth, gender, address, contact details
- Medical details such as past medical history, current medical conditions, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social and family history, risk factors
- Medicare number (when available) for identification and claiming purposes
- Any concession, healthcare or DVA card details
- Healthcare identifiers
Sharing your personal information
Requests for access by third parties to personal patient health information may arise from correspondence received from a solicitor, government agency or through completion of a Request for Medical History form by the patient themselves.
If our practice holds reports or health information from another organisation, we are obligated to provide access to this information in the same manner as for our own records. Additionally, we must provide access to records transferred to us from another health service provider.
Patient information is only shared with third parties after obtaining the signed consent to share information and, in specific cases, seeking informed consent from the patient.
Request for Access and Transfer of Patient Information
Patients at our practice have the right to access their personal (and health) information as per legislation. The Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) govern the obligations of health service providers and other organizations to provide patients access to their personal health information upon request, subject to specific exceptions and payment of fees.
Feedback and Complaints Policy
Occasionally within our clinic we will conduct a questionnaire which we ask random patients to complete. This serves as an indicator of how the clinic and its staff are performing and how we can improve. These surveys are completely confidential and help us improve as a practice.
If you have any suggestions for our clinic, you are always welcome to discuss this with your doctor or our practice manager.
We hope that any issues or difficulties you may have can be resolved. If you do have any complaints regarding our service or any staff member, please contact us and ask to be put through to the practice manager.
If you need to contact an outside authority:
Health Complains Commissioner – 1300 582 113
