Privacy notice

Hip & Knee replacement survey

We take your privacy seriously, so we want you to know that by taking part in our hip or knee replacement survey – online or over the phone – you consent to HCF collecting, using and disclosing your personal (including health) information to:

  • Track and measure changes in your health and quality of life after your hip or knee replacement over 12-18 months (compared to before your surgery) to understand the effectiveness of these procedures
  • Enable us to help improve outcomes for HCF members, including offering or developing relevant programs and services
  • Enable us to provide feedback to hospitals and healthcare providers about their services 
  • Inform the community about the effectiveness of hip and knee replacements and help improve patient outcomes.

Participation in the study is voluntary. There won’t be any negative consequences if you choose not to participate. If you choose to participate, the information you provide won’t affect your health cover or premiums in any way.

We need to identify you to conduct the study. You have been invited to participate because you’ve either: 

  • Been admitted to a hospital that has agreed to take part in our study. The hospital will ask you to participate and complete the first survey. If you don’t want to take part you don’t have to. 
  • Or your selected hospital has carried out an eligibility check to ensure you’re covered for your procedure. Through this check we can see if you’re planning to go to hospital. If you are going to hospital we’ll email you to ask if you’d like to participate in our survey. 

If you want to participate and have completed your first survey, we’ll send you follow-up survey by text message or email at 3 and 12 months after your surgery. 

For the study to be effective you need to answer all of the questions and provide your identifying information. 

If you’re unable, or choose not to complete the follow-up surveys online, we may contact you to find out how to make the process better in future.

The survey data will be held for us by a third party, known as Qualtrics, which is the survey tool used in this study. The data will be stored securely within Australia. 

Your survey data will only be accessed by the HCF Research Team. In conducting our research we may match claims data we have against the survey responses, including to identify your treating healthcare provider.

While our research results will normally be presented in an aggregated de-identified form, we may share your survey results with the hospitals and doctors who treated you, to help them understand how their health care and services have met your needs. 

You may contact the HCF Research Team at research@hcf.com.au if you’re concerned that any of the information you supplied for the survey is incorrect or incomplete. 

For more information about how we handle your personal (including health) information, including any overseas disclosures of your information, how to request access to, or correct, your personal information, and our complaints handling process, please read the HCF Privacy Policy or call 13 13 34 for a copy.