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Australasian Health Outcomes Consortium

AHOC Privacy Statement

The Australasian Health Outcomes Consortium (AHOC) is a research consortium within the University of Wollongong (UOW) Science, Medicine, and Health Faculty. AHOC aims to improve outcomes for clients, residents and patients, through the benchmarking of care and treatment, and supporting service improvement. Information on AHOC can be found here.

AHOC is committed to protecting the privacy of personal and health information as required in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) and actively takes steps to comply with other applicable laws, in circumstances where they apply to AHOC activities.

This privacy statement describes how AHOC collects, uses, and protects personal and health information.

Member services and organisations can seek personnel privacy related information by emailing the relevant program below and requesting a copy of the Membership agreement.

Further information regarding UOW’s commitment to privacy is available at https://www.uow.edu.au/privacy/

 

How we collect your personal and health information

The four AHOC outcomes programs collect personal and health information of clients, residents and patients from member services.

What information is collected

  • AHOC collects datasets from each of its member services or organisations. These datasets include specific health information about clients, residents or patients, such as details about the provision of care as well as demographic data.
  • AHOC takes all reasonable steps to ensure that the datasets do not include government identifiers or personal information such as names or addresses to meet its commitment to protecting the privacy of individuals. In the event that the data provided to AHOC is potentially re-identifiable, all efforts are made to apply de-identification techniques to the data.

Purposes for which your information is collected, who the information is shared with and why

  • AHOC outcomes programs work with member services, by using health information and data to generate reports. These reports help member services improve the care they provide.
  • AHOC programs also use information and data for quality improvement and benchmarking activities, to help member services better understand how well they deliver care, compared to other member services.
  • AHOC programs release data for research purposes, to improve the effectiveness of care. Individual record data will only be released where appropriate evidence of compliance with relevant ethical requirements is produced and evidence of public importance is confirmed. Where approval has been granted, steps are taken to ensure that a user agreement is executed, which sets out the expectations and limitations regarding the use and maintenance of the data.
  • Aggregated and deidentified information and data are provided to the Department of Health and Aged Care and other reporting bodies, as required. AHOC programs may place this aggregated and deidentified data on the AHOC website, in the form of state and national reports.
  • AHOC will not release any information from its consolidated dataset or benchmarking information that could identify an individual rehabilitation member service, unless provided with written instruction to do so by that member service.
  • Where practicable, aggregate data or the least sensitive level of data and number of data items will be released to achieve the research purpose.

How your information is stored and protected

AHOC has measures in place to safely manage your personal and health information in accordance with its privacy obligations as outlined in the UOW Privacy Policy. AHOC program agreements, contracts and registration forms comply with the key considerations of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and/or the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002.  

Data submitted by member services is transmitted via a secure online portal. Data and information collected by AHOC is held securely on password protected servers, located physically within the secure data centre of the UOW. Data storage and protection is subject to technical and organisational measures and standards, to protect against unauthorised or unlawful access and against accidental loss, destruction, or damage, as per the  UOW ITMS Server Security policy.

Examples of the measures that AHOC implement to protect the data submitted to the outcomes programs include:

  1. Data checking and auditing
  2. Role-based access and authentication procedures
  3. Back-up and disaster recovery plans

Your participation in AHOC

All individuals have the right to opt out of having their information submitted to AHOC. They also have the right to access and request corrections to that information. To make enquiries about the handling of your information please contact the University Privacy Officer by email at privacy-enquiry@uow.edu.au.