Confidentiality Policy
SASHC and its director and staff members will respect the confidentiality of information obtained in the course of business at SASHC not share information about staff members, clients, volunteers or contractors with anyone where the information is not required for direct client care of staff safety.
Director
Nivasinee Sreetharan
All employees of SASHC
All employees of SASHC
Staff will maintain confidentiality of all information regarding individual people (staff or clients), families, groups or communities at all times. It is particularly important to stress that this policy includes information about particular communities as well as individuals. It is a breach of this policy to discuss privileged community issues with people in social situations even in other places.
- Cultural information that staff may become aware of in the course of their work; such information may be highly sensitive.
- Verbal information (including telephone conversations or other conversations between staff or between staff and clients, discussions with community members).
- Written information of any kind (case notes, pathology results, administration files, internal memos etc).
- Information stored on computers.
Staff should fully inform users/clients about confidentiality in any given situation, the purposes for which information is obtained and how it may be used, and get consent from clients for any information used outside the health care function of the service. If a staff member is under pressure to reveal confidential matters because of family ties or other reasons, then the problem should be discussed with a colleague or senior worker.
Confidentiality procedures need to be under constant review by staff, with investigation and action on all complaints.
Breaches of confidentiality constitute a serious breach of professional obligations, and can result in instant dismissal. All staff are fully informed about this requirement in the recruitment/employment process, and it is included in their contract or employment agreement.
- All interviews take place in a private space.
- Staff need to fully inform clients about the limits of confidentiality in any given situation, the purposes for which information is obtained and how it may be used.
- Store all personal information about clients in a locked filing cabinet. Workers are responsible for ensuring that their own diary notes do not breach confidentiality.
- Clinical notes should only be accessed by staff with a legitimate professional interest in the contents.
- Obtain the client’s consent before discussing the person’s clinical details with another staff member. If the person refuses, and the health practitioner feels they have a professional obligation to discuss the details with another health professional, they should do so without revealing the identity of the patient.
- Staff are entitled to share information with an external supervisor where necessary for the purposes of supervision and debriefing, but these situations do not require the patient’s identity to be revealed. Any information disclosed will be treated confidentially by the supervisor.
- Conversations over the telephone are in the public arena, therefore it is not prudent to talk about client information in a way that identifies the client.
- Only give information about clients to other health care providers with the client’s consent.
- Allied Health practitioners should be the only staff who give out health or medical information, including about results, over the phone and only with the express permission of the client.
- In general, requests for information from other service providers should only occur with the knowledge and consent of the client.
- People visiting from elsewhere who have tests should routinely be asked if they consent to having copies of test results forwarded to their doctor.
- Document people’s views about where information can and cannot be sent in their notes each time it is discussed.
- In some cases when a client does not attend for follow-up, or cannot be contacted and has a significant health problem, it may be necessary to contact other health service providers to help with follow-up, even if the client has not consented to this happening. In this case, avoid providing any clinical details about the client’s health problems unless the matters are necessary to ensure adequate duty of care.
- All electronic client information is stored in a secure electronic drive with guarded passwords
- Access to records is strictly for SASHC members who require access for therapy, assessment or intervention, or when access to files is in direct conjunction with client welfare.
- Hard copy records are kept in a locked cupboard in a staff only area not accessed by clients. Only staff members involved in direct client care will have access to client records
- Electronic records are located on a secure network an accessible only with a password. The password shall be kept secure and confidential by all SASHC employees and access to the client records shall only be for the purpose of direct client care.
Information that should be revealed includes:
- Serious illegal actions on the part of service users and providers.
- Any issue that could endanger the safety of other service users or staff.
- Any issue that could endanger the service user and/or dependent children.
- Where the staff member is obliged to make a notification to the Department of Family and Children’s Services.
If staff are unclear about how to manage any confidentiality or information sharing, they should discuss it with a director.
