healthdirect (1800MEDICARE) helpline collection notice

This notice outlines how Healthdirect Australia Ltd (Healthdirect) will collect, use, protect and share your information when you use the (also known as 1800MEDICARE nationally, and NURSE-ON-CALL in Victoria).

When you contact the healthdirect helpline, Healthdirect collects and uses personal and health information with your consent to:

• assess your health needs and provide appropriate advice, triage or support
• determine appropriate health-related outcomes or actions
• support the safe and effective delivery of our services, and
• support quality assurance, complaints handling, incident management and service improvement.

If you do not wish to provide your identity, the following option(s) are available to you:

• You can use the service with a pseudonym, that is, a nickname, alias or descriptor that is not your real name.
• You can request that we proceed without disclosing an identity (please note that we will still collect a limited subset of information to facilitate your call, for example, your postcode and phone number).
• You can request your call recording be turned off when your call connects with the triage nurse.

However, please be aware that by withholding some or all your personal or sensitive information, there may be limitations to the services that we are able to provide to you, such as limitations on our ability to provide specific health information or advice, or for us to refer you to other services.

If you do not wish to provide your identity, please advise the call agent answering your call.

We generally collect this information directly from you. On occasion we may collect information about you from persons or sources other than yourself (for example, a family member). If you do not provide this information, we may only be able to provide limited healthcare services to you.

We collect:

• your name and date of birth
• socio-demographic information, such as your age and sex, dependants, occupation and postcode
• contact details, such as your email address and phone number
• sensitive health information about your illnesses, symptoms you have experienced, any disabilities or other health services you are receiving or will receive in the future, any medications that you may be taking, and where clinically relevant, sensitive information about your ethnic background or sexual practices
• information about your call from our telephony provider (Telstra), such as the date and time of the call, general location information (such as state or region), and a partially redacted phone number. This information is collected regardless of whether you are successfully connected to the helpline
• recordings of your audio and video calls.

If you do not wish to have your audio or video call recorded, please advise our staff as soon as you speak to them.

We may also generate additional system-supported outputs to assist with service delivery and quality improvement, including:

• automated transcripts of your call
• sentiment analysis and quality insights, and
• other analytics or reporting information.

Your information is primarily used to provide you with the healthdirect helpline service, including facilitating your access to healthcare. This may include disclosing your information to another health practitioner or health service involved in your care, where relevant, and sending you a personalised summary of advice and information via SMS, where you have requested it.

The information that you provide to us is also collected and stored as a health record.

We may also use your information, including information about your call collected from our telephony provider (Telstra), for related internal purposes, such as quality assurance, service improvement, reporting and analytics, customer care support and staff training.

We may use your contact details to invite you to provide feedback about your experience with the helpline. This helps us understand how our services are performing and where improvements can be made.

If selected, you may:

• receive an SMS survey, or
• be invited to remain on the line after your interaction with the helpline to complete a survey.

Participation is voluntary, and you may choose not to take part or opt out of receiving feedback requests at any time.

Feedback is generally used in de-identified or aggregated form for service monitoring, reporting and improvement activities. Any identifying information used to send survey invitations is handled securely and kept separate from survey responses.

Use of technology and automated tools

Healthdirect uses technology to support the efficiency, safety and quality of its services.

This may include systems that:

• convert speech to text (transcription), and
• analyse interactions to support service quality and insights.

These tools are used to support our services and do not replace clinical judgement. Decisions about your care remain the responsibility of appropriately qualified staff.

To support your access to healthcare, Healthdirect shares your personal and health information with other healthcare providers, where required.

With your consent, we also share your personal and health information to:

• service providers who support our systems and technology platforms (including cloud-based services), under strict contractual, privacy and security controls
• companies that conduct surveys for us to seek your feedback on the service that you've received (if you do not wish for your information to be sent to our survey partners, please tell our staff as soon as you speak with them), and
• where required or authorised by law.

Healthdirect has an obligation to ensure that the personal and sensitive information that you provide is appropriately protected from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

You have the right to:

• request access to your health information
• request correction of your personal information, and
• make a complaint about how your information is handled.

Our Privacy Policy for members of the public explains in more detail how we process personal information, including how you can access or correct information we hold about you and how to contact us.