Mansfield District Hospital is subject to a number of legislative requirements in relation to information acquired about and staff patients including the Health Services Act 1988, the Health Records Act 2001 and the Victorian Privacy Act 2000. Full copies of the privacy policies of the organisation are available by request.
Privacy, Dignity and Patient’s Rights and Responsibilities
- To ensure that each resident or patient’s privacy and dignity is maintained. To ensure that Registered Nurses maintain their professional duty of care.
- Privacy is physical, social and emotional and involves personal space and the right to refuse without explanation.
- The erosion of privacy may incur a loss of dignity and self-esteem for the patient.
- To ensure the facility meets the requirements of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards especially to Standard 1 Governance for Safety and Quality in Health Service Organisations and also Standard 2 Partnering with Consumers.
Document & Data Control – Information Privacy / Confidentiality
Information privacy covers the handling of personal information within the organisation be it resident, patient, client or employee information. Such information may clearly identify a person or the identity of the person can be ascertained from the information. Within the organisation this information is held in a variety of electronic and paper forms, the majority of which are comprised of medical records, personnel records and the like.
Information Privacy Principles from the Victorian Privacy Act will be applied to all management and security procedures relating to:
- records which allow an individual to be immediately identified, such as those which contain names and addresses.
- records which contain enough information to allow an individual to be identified – including those containing individual identifiers – Medicare number, UR number, employee number, or enough detail of medical conditions, social situation or events as to risk identification.