1. Scope & System Identity
QuickCare Health Systems ("QuickCare", "we", "us", or "our") operates an offline-first patient intake, automated symptom triage, and queue scheduling service. This Privacy Policy governs personal data processed through our USSD shortcode gateway (*384*22152#), hospital staff consoles, web platforms, and application APIs.
2. Information Collection by Care Path
QuickCare applies strict data minimization principles based on the path selected during dialed interactions:
- Path 1: Emergency Selection: If you select "Emergency" upon dialing, no personal health descriptions or medical history are recorded. The session immediately issues an urgent instruction to dial national emergency dispatch (112) and terminates. Only standard telecom network metadata (MSISDN and session timestamp) is logged for session auditing.
- Path 2: Non-Emergency Triage: If you select "Non-Emergency", the platform prompts you to input preliminary symptoms. We collect self-reported clinical inputs (such as symptom type, duration, and pain severity), preferred clinic departments, and phone number (MSISDN) to calculate intake queues.
- Administrative Web Consoles: Standard access logs, IP addresses, and encrypted authentication tokens for clinical staff.
3. Purpose of Processing & AI Pre-Triage
Clinical symptom descriptions submitted under the Non-Emergency path are evaluated by automated triage scoring algorithms strictly to:
- Screen for red-flag symptoms and trigger urgent escalation advice to dial 112 if an emergent issue is detected.
- Assign appropriate clinic routing (e.g., General OPD, Pediatrics, OB/GYN).
- Compute dynamic estimated arrival times (ETAs) and generate sequential queue tokens (e.g.,
QC-OPD-001) based on active patient volume. - Audit telecom interactions to protect platform availability against denial-of-service or shortcode spam.
4. Data Minimization & Waiting Room Privacy
To protect patient confidentiality in crowded clinic environments, all patient mobile numbers displayed on hospital reception screens and intake monitors are masked by default (e.g., +233 24 •••• 412). Raw telephone records are accessible only to authorized healthcare staff.
Intermediate USSD interaction steps are held in temporary memory and purged once your triage token is issued or the session expires.
5. Third-Party Disclosures
QuickCare does not sell or commercialize personal or clinical data. Data transit is limited to:
- Licensed Telecommunication Providers: Routing USSD session packets over GSM channels.
- Partner Healthcare Facilities: Transmitting queue tokens, urgency classifications, and arrival windows directly to receiving hospital staff.
6. Retention & Security Controls
Triage tickets and session logs are retained for 90 days for operational continuity before being converted to de-identified healthcare utilization metrics. Administrative portals enforce Transport Layer Security (TLS 1.3) and tokenized role-based access.
7. Patient Rights & Contact
Under Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), you have the right to request access to or deletion of data associated with your phone identifier. For privacy questions, contact privacy@quickcare.health.