Patient Fact Sheet

Electronic Communication

Please note, email is not routinely monitored, and we do not encourage patients to contact us this way. Patients are encouraged to be aware of the risks to confidentiality involved with email correspondence. Any emails and phone calls addressed to clinical staff will be forwarded to the appropriate nurse or doctor for advice, which may include being asked to make an appointment to discuss your issue face to face in more depth.

Telephone Communication

Our phone lines are open during business hours. After hours callers will receive a recorded message with options on how the caller may proceed. When telephoning the surgery our staff need to ensure they are speaking with the patient or a person authorized to speak on the patient’s behalf. Our staff will ask questions to determine the identity of the person they are speaking with. Being trained in assessing the urgency of your call our staff may ask questions to determine how they will respond to your call. At all times our staff keep you informed of your call progress. It is not usual practice for our staff to allow you to speak directly with the Doctor unless circumstances dictate the need to do so.

Feedback and Complaints:

If you have any questions, feedback or complaints please do not hesitate to contact the staff at Clermont Country Practice. If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received from our practice and do not want to discuss this with us, the following information is for the state health complaint agency: Health Complaints Commissioner Queensland 133 OHO or email [email protected]

Results Policy:

We advise patients to book an appointment to discuss results at the time of their appointment for assessment of all new medical problems. We may not ask you to come back routinely for results or monitoring tests and will contact you if there are unexpected results.

Billing Policy:

We believe in and endeavour to deliver high quality health care to each individual clients.

In order to provide such care, we carefully balance the needs and the affordability of each case.

We are now a private billing practice.  We have made the transition to private billing to ensure the continued sustainability of our practice.  The massive imbalance between the value of the Medicare rebate and our actual operational costs, resulted in us no longer operating a viable business.  For us to continue provide the quality service that we pride ourselves on, we have made the difficult decision to transition to a private billing practice.  Whilst we are aware that this will cause some distress to some of our patients, this is a necessary move for us if we are to continue to operate in the Clermont Community.  To find out more about the cost of bulk billing to the clinic and health care system, click here.

Although this is a privately billed surgery, bulk billing us still available for some appointments and reduced rates are available for pensioners.

Payment can be made by cash or EFTPOS. Any extra costs involved in your treatment or procedures will be discussed at the time of consultation.

FAILING TO ATTEND AN APPOINTMENT:

We understand sometimes life presents circumstances that are out of our control. As a result we allow failing to attend without notice three times, on the fourth occasion there will be at $30 fee associated with failing to attend and this fee will continue thereafter. Please contact the surgery 2 hours prior to your appointment if you are unable to attend.

Management of Personal Health Information:

The practice has strict guidelines on confidentiality, patient consent, consent for a 3rd party to obtain information, transferring of health information and access and security of personal health information. It adheres to the National Privacy Principles Act and the Health Records and Information Act. A copy of this information can be obtained from reception.