Lifecare Residences NZ

Privacy Policy

OBJECTIVE

This Privacy Policy explains how LifeCare Residences (trading as Waiheke Retirement Village) collects, stores, uses and shares your personal information.

​STANDARD

Openness and transparency are important to us. The Privacy Act 1993 requires us to tell you certain things about the personal information we need from you, so we can provide you with the best possible care and service during your stay at Waiheke Retirement Village. This is where we explain our privacy practices and why you can trust us to handle your personal information with care and respect.

In this Privacy Policy, we explain what personal information we collect and how we use or share it. We also explain the way we store and protect personal information and your rights to access and correct it.

In short, here are a few key privacy messages to note:

  • We only collect personal information where this is necessary to carry out our business of providing a home for our residents.
  • We may collect personal information about you either directly from you or from other people or agencies, and we may generate personal information about you when we carry out our business.
  • We store all our data (including your personal information) in secure physical files or on a CodeBlue secured private cloud platform and we use Microsoft Office 365 applications – which have inbuilt security measures. We protect our data with reasonable technical and process controls.
  • You can ask us for a copy of your personal information at any time. We will be as open as we can with you but must also ensure we meet our privacy obligations to other residents and our staff.
  • We will only use and share personal information where necessary to carry out the functions for which we collected it, or if required by law.

We may update this privacy statement from time to time, so feel free to check in again occasionally to see what might have changed. This statement was last updated in June 2022.

​PROCEDURE

This section explains how we collect, use and share personal information when we are providing a home for our residents.

The personal information we collect about you

The nature of our business requires us to collect sensitive personal information about our residents, to ensure we are providing them with the best possible service and care. We request, receive and use significant amounts of sensitive personal information, which includes (but isn’t limited to) physical and mental health information, financial and property information and details about next of kin and Enduring Power of Attorneys.

We comply with our obligations under the Health Information Privacy Code 1994 and the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2004 in the way we collect, use and share health and financial information about our residents.

From you directly

Most of the personal information we collect is provided directly by you or your authorised representative(s) (such as family members or medical professionals) when you express an interest in living at Waiheke Retirement Village, or while you are a resident here.

Before we can offer you a home at Waiheke Retirement Village, we collect certain medical, financial and legal information about you. This is provided when you complete our Resident Personal Details Form, Application for Occupation Right Agreement and Village Medical Assessment, and includes your contact details, medical information, details of your next of kin, and copies of your Enduring Power of Attorneys for health and property. If this information is not provided, we may be unable to enter into an Occupation Right Agreement with you or offer you a home at Waiheke Retirement Village.

You do not have to voluntarily provide any other personal information to us. However, we may not be able to effectively provide you with the level of care or service we expect, if you do not provide us with the information we need.

The personal information we may collect from you directly includes:

  • your full name and date of birth
  • your contact details, including your address, email address or phone number
  • whether you are retired and information about your previous employment
  • information about your next of kin and other authorised representatives – including family members, legal representatives and medical professionals
  • your National Health Index (NHI) number and information about your past and present medical history, current medication(s) and allergies
  • details of your interactions with us
  • billing and purchase information

From another person or agency

The healthcare services we provide may also require us to receive or request your medical information from other people or agencies. This includes your General Practitioner completing a Village Medical Assessment (for all residents) and other information from medical professionals involved in the treatment of residents.

Generated by us as we provide a service

During providing you with a home at Waiheke Retirement Village, we generate personal information about you. The personal information we may generate about you includes:

  • correspondence (such as letters and emails), between you and our staff or with your next of kin or other authorised representatives
  • file notes, memoranda, meeting minutes or other records of actions taken

What we do with your personal information

How we use it

To provide you with the best possible care and service, we need to use your personal information in the ways set out below. Where we need to use information in a way we have not anticipated here, we will only do so if required or permitted by law or with your authorisation. We will use your personal information to:

  • provide you with a high standard of living,
  • contact you or keep you safe in the event of an emergency or incident,
  • communicate with your next of kin and other authorised representatives,
  • provide you with medical assistance or treatment when required, and
  • review and improve the delivery of our services, including conducting satisfaction surveys.

When we share it

We share personal information where necessary to keep your next of kin properly informed and to provide appropriate medical treatment for you when required. We may, for example, share personal information with:

  • your family members or next of kin,
  • your nominated medical representatives or others involved in your treatment, such as the Auckland District Health Board,
  • your Enduring Power of Attorneys,
  • the Police or a government agency, if required by law – for example, if there is a serious threat to health or safety. If our staff are threatened or abused, we may refer this to the Police, or
  • our third-party cloud provider, to ensure your personal information is kept secure.

Storage and retention

How we store it

We keep your information safe by requiring authorisation and password protection to access electronic information and by storing physical information in locked cabinets when not in use. We train all our staff in their privacy obligations and only provide staff members with access to your personal information as needed.

We use a third-party provider CodeBlue to store and process our data. We store most of the personal information we collect and generate electronically on private cloud servers. We also use Microsoft Office 365 for our email and other office productivity applications. This means that the personal information we hold may be transferred to, or accessed from, countries other than New Zealand.

How long we retain it

We are required by the Limitations Act 2010 to retain your personal information for a period of six years. We also retain your personal information for the length of your stay with us at Waiheke Retirement Village. Once you are no longer a resident at Waiheke Retirement Village, any physical information we hold about you is archived for six years before being sent to a secure document destruction facility. All digital information we hold about you on our network is deleted and information contained within our health management software is archived.

Security

We take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect is protected against loss, unauthorised access and disclosure or any other misuse.

We ensure the third parties involved in processing or storing our electronic data can meet our privacy and security requirements and information is encrypted at the time it is transferred. We are satisfied there are adequate security and privacy safeguards in place to protect information third party providers hold on our behalf.

Your privacy rights and how to contact us

The Privacy Act gives you rights to request access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you. You can take steps to control the ways we use your information (such as opting out of receiving newsletters).

You can also complain to us at any time if you think we have misused your personal information. Contact us to exercise any of these rights, including the right to complain about our privacy practices. Remember that you can make an information request to us in any form.

​Requesting access to or correction of your information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you (whether we have collected it from you directly or from a third party). You also have the right to ask us to correct your information if you think it is wrong.

We will process your request as soon as possible, and no later than 20 working days after we receive it. We will be as open as we can with you, but please note we may also occasionally need to withhold personal information under sections 27-29 of the Privacy Act, for example where the information requested contains personal information about another resident or staff member. However, we will only ever withhold information where necessary.

Opting out of certain uses of your information

You can opt out of receiving our newsletter, having your image included in our newsletter or on our website or being included on our Birthday List or Village Phone List by selecting “no” when you complete a Resident Personal Details Form.

Complaining about our privacy practices

We want to know if you have concerns about our privacy practices, whether these relate to the way we collect or share information about you or our decision on your access request. This allows us to try and put things right for you and helps us to identify and fix any problems with our systems or processes.

In the first instance, let us know about your concerns and we will try our best to resolve it. This could include escalating your concerns to our Village Manager.

If we cannot resolve your concerns, then you have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner about our actions by:

  • emailing enquiries@privacy.org.nz
  • calling 0800 803 809
  • writing to PO Box 10 094, The Terrace, Wellington 6143.