Accreditation practice pointer: transfer of patient health information and consent

C3.6C Our practice only transfers identified patient health information to a third party for quality improvement or professional development activities after we have obtained the patient’s consent.

RACGP Standards for general practice

General practice may decide to support research and quality improvement activities, which will ultimately improve primary healthcare.

When practices agree to submit patient health information to a third party, they must gain consent from the respective patients. This must be documented in the patient’s health record. Patients must also be informed that declining to participate in research will not affect the care they receive at the practice.

Practices can seek patient consent for the use and transfer of health information on new patient registration forms.

Practices that share patient health information with a third party must maintain a privacy policy.

Patient consent is not necessary when practices provide de-identified. For practices that are unsure about releasing de-identified patient data, RACGP has developed Guiding principles for managing requests for the secondary use of de-identified general practice data forms.