Eton Place Policies
and Frequently Asked Questions

Eton Place Pty Ltd (we, us, our) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect and manage personal information and the steps we take to protect it. This Privacy Policy does not affect our obligation of confidentiality to you if you are our client. Your use of the Eton Place website indicates that you accept this Privacy Policy and approve the collection, use and disclosure by Eton Place, of your personal information according to the terms below. Due to the Federal Privacy Act 1988, we require your written consent to collect personal information about you. We require you to provide us with your personal details and a full medical history, so that we may properly assess, diagnose and treat you. We may need to collect information from previous doctors, health care workers, pathology or x-ray services that you have consulted with, for the primary purpose of providing quality healthcare. This means that we will use the information you provide in the following ways: ​ Best assess your health care needs and provide medical treatment ​ Administration purposes in running our practice. We may need to contact you using phone numbers provided by you. We may need to send documents, pathology and radiology referrals or letters to the email address provided by you. ​ Billing purposes and debt collection, including compliance with Medicare and Health Insurance Commission requirements. ​ Disclosure to others involved in your care, including treating doctors, specialists and hospital booking staff outside this practice. This may occur through referral to other doctors, surgery at hospitals, for medical tests and in the reports or results returned to us following the referrals. ​ Collection of data for research purposes. This information is used to improve our treatment protocols, which will enable us to improve our quality of care. The data is kept in a secure manner and only staff involved in the research has access to them. You may be contacted at some time in the future for follow up purposes. No information that can be used to identify you will be included in any publication of the research results. You may withdraw from the research at any time, by sending us notification of this in writing. ​ You may be contacted for follow up in the future to ensure the long term results of your procedure. ​ You have the right to see any health information we hold about you, as well as, the ability to correct any details that are not accurate. ​ Our Duty of Care In certain circumstances, if your communication with us raises safety concerns, we will try to contact you to check that you and/or others are safe. We will also contact your next of Kin toIf necessary, we may need to pass on your contact information and that of your Next of Kin (if you have supplied it) to authorities who can help protect you and/or others, such as a crisis service or the police. Where possible we will work with you openly, letting you know if our concerns reach the point where we need to involve other services. We are obliged to try to protect you and/or others if the information you submit tells us that: You are being seriously hurt by someone else You are thinking of seriously harming yourself Someone else is being, or is likely to be, seriously hurt by you or another person

Although we strive to offer patients and families a collaborative approach, it is important to note that all our practitioners run their own independent practices from Eton Place. As such, they practice autonomously and with complete sovereignty. Reports, questionnaires/ surveys/ rating scales, as well as, formal assessments by other health professionals can yield useful information. However, please note that all our clinicians will form their diagnosis and develop an individualised management plan, based on their overall clinical impression; taking into account multiple different sources, as well as, their own assessment process. This may or may not align with a diagnosis provided by another professional or that may be required for external funding purposes.

Life happens and we do understand that there will be unforeseen circumstances that prevent you from attending your appointment. However, we do want to ensure we are able to offer appointments to those who need to be seen urgently/ immediately. Our cancellation policy allows us to be able to do this. ​ You will receive an SMS from us 4 days prior to your appointment to confirm your attendance. If we do not receive confirmation 48 business hours prior to your consultation, your appointment will, unfortunately, be cancelled. We understand that this can sometimes cause a great deal of distress and will be more than happy to further discuss options, should this be the case. ​ Please bear in mind that: If you fail to attend your appointment without contacting the clinic, you will be charged a fee equivalent to the full cost of your appointment. ​ If you cancel or reschedule your appointment, with less than 24 business hours' notice, you will be charged a fee equivalent to the full cost of your consultation. ​ If you cancel or reschedule your appointment, with less than 48 business hours' notice, you will be charged a $100 cancellation fee. ​ Hence, if needing to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please ensure you give us as much notice as possible.

To effectively manage billing and payments, we have implemented the following: - all psychiatry telehealth appointments require a pre-payment deposit/ portion of the appointment cost - all allied health telehealth appointments require pre-payment of the full consult fee ​ Pre-payments must be paid at least 3 days in advance of your appointment. We will send an SMS reminder for you to contact the clinic to make your payment. Please be aware that it is your responsibility to ensure that the payment is received in time. Regrettably, your appointment will be cancelled if pre-payments are not received prior to the time. Please be mindful that it may be a wait to rebook an appointment with your doctor/clinician. ​ We do understand that the above can be distressing and frustrating to some of our families. As such, please contact us as soon as possible, should you have extenuating circumstances or are experiencing financial strain/ hardship. We will do our best to help you and your family obtain the best possible outcome.

We ask that all face to face appointments are paid for, in full on the day of service. Unfortunately, if full payment of your invoice is not received on the day of your appointment, future appointments may be cancelled and we will not be able to rebook appointments until all outstanding invoices have been paid. ​ Additionally, to minimise the risk of recurrence, we may ask that you pre-pay your future appointments. ​ We do understand that individual circumstances vary. Hence, if you are facing challenges around payment of your appointments, please contact us as soon as possible to negotiate a plan moving forward.

Unfortunately, we are not a bulk-billing service and appointments must be paid in full on the day of service. Appointments with the independent clinicians (doctors and allied health professionals) are eligible for a Medicare rebate. Fees vary between our clinicians and appointments are billed according to time and length of the consultation. Please contact reception to obtain the fee breakdown for your doctor or allied health professional.

Scripts Prescriptions are usually written during an appointment. Under certain circumstances, your doctor may write you a script outside of an appointment. Unfortunately, as this will need to be done outside of your doctor's consulting time, a fee will apply. Please note that, to ensure timely processing of your script, payment must be made at the time of request. Please ensure you check your script expiry PRIOR to cancelling any appointments. Please ensure that, should you require a new script, you inform us as soon as possible. Unfortunately, if you have not seen your doctor in the last 6 months, you will require an appointment, in order to obtain a new prescription. This is to ensure important measures and parameters are checked and any risks/ concerns associated with medication prescription are addressed. Stimulant scripts have a 6 month expiry, whilst all other scripts generally expire after 12 months. ​ Report or Letter Requests Due to the ever increasing volume of these requests, completion of any reports, letters and forms will incur fees. This is related to the administration and "out-of-consulting" time involved in the process. You will receive a quote PRIOR to completion of paperwork. Should you wish to proceed, this quote must be accepted in writing and the full invoice paid prior to receipt of your paperwork. Unfortunately, if you have not seen your doctor/clinician in the last 6 months, you will require an appointment in order to discuss any paperwork requests. Please be aware that completion of reports, forms and letters can take up to 14 business days. The above does not apply to usual correspondence to your GP specialist.

Communication: Automatic communications (eg SMS and emails) are usually sent to one ("default") parent. This may be the nominated parent, the parent with primary parental responsibility or majority custody. We will always do our best to ensure the correct information is sent to relevant parties. However, there may be instances, whereby, information is sent to the wrong person, eg, appointment made by other parent, but reminder incorrectly sent to the "default" parent. Written communication from our practice is usually sent to the nominated ("default") parent in our software system. Should this need to be changed for your family, please ensure you send this information to us in writing. It is reasonable to expect that separated families will co-parent within a framework of joint parental responsibility. It is legally the responsibility of parents to determine how they exchange information constructively. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to make complex individualised arrangements. However, we will do our best to accommodate individual circumstances for your family, where this is reasonable, achievable and in the best interest of your child. ​ Appointments: Our staff and clinicians will generally communicate with the parent present at appointments with your child. As clinicians can only provide information during appointments, it is generally expected that this information will be shared with the other parent. However, if this isn't possible, we ask that parents make separate appointments (with or without your child) with our clinicians to discuss any concerns and relevant information etc. Our reception team will contact you to facilitate this. ​ Consents, Rights and Court Orders We do require copies of all existing parenting, consent and custody orders relating to your child AT or BEFORE the first appointment. We also must be notified, as soon as possible, of any changes to such orders or implementation of new orders. Unless court orders are in place, either parent is able to give consent for anything related to your child's medical treatment. However, it is important to note that, unless court orders specify otherwise, a treatment plan can commence with the consent of one parent. ​ Payments Unfortunately, our practice is not able to process split payments for your child's appointments. However, if required, our reception staff can lodge Medicare rebates on behalf of different claimants. Please ensure you discuss this with staff prior to your child's appointment. Limits of confidentiality (relating to parents whose children are patients of Eton Place) It is imperative that you understand that there are very defined limits to confidentiality. We will abide by any consent orders your family has in place, that relate to your child (who is our patient and a patient of this practice). Our clinicians are obligated to maintain your child's confidentiality (unless there are safety concerns). However, we are not obliged to maintain your confidentiality - both, in regards to the date and content of your appointment(s). If you have specific concerns in relation to this, you will need to discuss this directly with your child's treating clinician. The outcomes of these discussions will be very clearly documented in your child's medical file.

Respectful Behaviour Policy Our administration team cherish the important relationships we have with all families and patients who attend Eton Place. Rest assured, we will always treat you with respect, care, kindness and compassion. As such, we hope you will be able to reciprocate this important relationship. We hope that you will appreciate that intimidating or threatening behaviour will not be tolerated by any member of the Eton Place team (both staff and clinicians). We have a zero tolerance policy to violence and aggression. Like employees of other workplaces, our staff have the right to work and carry out their duties in an environment free from violence, threat or aggression. Hence, threatening, aggressive or abusive behaviour in the clinic or directed to a member of staff will, unfortunately, result in a discharge of care and ban from re-entering the clinic. ​ SMS Appointment Reminders We will send you an SMS appointment reminder 4 days prior to your appointment. We ask that you respond to this SMS. Unfortunately, if we do not receive a reply 48 hours prior to your scheduled appointment, the appointment will be cancelled. Please be aware that it can take up to 3 months to rebook your appointment. ​ Referrals To be eligible for Medicare Rebate, you require a current referral from your GP or another medical specialist. Please note, a GP specialist referral is usually valid for 12 months and a non-GP specialist referral is valid for 3 months. Both referrals are valid from the date of your first appointment (and not from the date the referral was written). It is your responsibility to ensure you/your child’s referral is current. However, we do keep a record of this, so if you are unsure, please feel free to contact us to check.

Although we always aim to ensure we meet (and hopefully exceed) your expectations, there may be instances where this isn't the case. You or your child may be unhappy with various aspects of your experience at Eton Place. Should this be the case, please ensure you let us know as soon as possible. Please address all complaints, concerns and/ or grievances to the practice manager in the first instance. This is best done in writing to: practice.manager@etonplace.com.au. We aim to respond to all written complaints within 10 business days. Should your complaint be in relation to a contractor practicing at Eton Place, we will generally inform the contractor of your complaint and encourage the contractor to communicate with you directly where possible and appropriate. Please note that, as contractors run their individual businesses, using the consulting rooms at Eton Place, we are unable to act on their behalf nor escalate your complaint (other than inform them of the complaint/ grievance from you, in relation to them). Should you wish (and if appropriate), we will be more than happy to provide you with further information and options. Should your complaint involve an employee of Eton Place, we will address your complaint with the relevant employee and associated body/ organisation (if appropriate and relevant). We will, where possible and appropriate, implement strategies to address relevant issues and rectify your concerns. We will communicate with you regularly and ensure you are updated at every step. Please be assured that we do take every concern and complaint seriously and will always strive to ensure these are rectified (where possible) and a constructive outcome occurs for all involved. If you'd like further information regarding Eton Place Complaints Handling Policy, please refer to the below document or contact the clinic. If you wish to register a complaint, you may do so by completing the below Complaints Report Form and returning via email to practice.manager@etonplace.com.au