Patients & Visitors

Patient Rights and Responsibilities

Your Rights

Following is a statement of your rights with respect to your protected health information and a brief description of how you may exercise these rights.

You have the right to inspect and copy your protected health information. This means you may inspect and obtain a copy of protected health information about you that is contained in a designated record set for as long as we maintain the protected health information. A "designated record set" contains medical and billing records and any other records that your physician and Mary Greeley Medical Center use for making decisions about you. You will be accessed a fee for a copy of this record per our Medical Record fee policy.

Under federal law, however, you may not inspect or copy the following records:

Psychotherapy notes
Information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding
Protected health information that is subject to law that prohibits access to protected health information

Depending on the circumstances, a decision to deny access may be reviewed. In some circumstances, you may have a right to have this decision reviewed. Please contact our Privacy Officer if you have questions about access to your medical record.

You have the right to request a restriction of your protected health information. This means you may ask us not to use or disclose any part of your protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations. You may also request that any part of your protected health information not be disclosed to family members or friends who may be involved in your care or for notification purposes as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices. Your request must state the specific restriction requested and to whom you want the restriction to apply.

We will consider your request, but we are not required to agree to it. If we believe it is in your best interest to permit use and disclosure of your protected health information, your protected health information will not be restricted. If we do agree to the requested restriction, we may not use or disclose your protected health information in violation of that restriction unless it is required by law or needed to provide emergency treatment. You may request a restriction by contacting and discussing the issue with the Privacy Officer and placing the request in writing.

You have the right to request to receive confidential communications from us by alternative means or at an alternative location. We will accommodate reasonable requests. We may also condition this accommodation by asking you for information as to how payment will be handled or specification of an alternative address or other method of contact. We will not request an explanation from you as to the basis for the request. Please make this request in writing to our Privacy Officer.

You may have the right to amend your protected health information. If you feel that medical information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information by submitting your request in writing to our privacy officer and giving us a reason for your request. In certain cases, we may deny your request for an amendment. If we deny your request for amendment, you have the right to file a statement of disagreement with us and we may prepare a rebuttal to your statement and will provide you with a copy of any such rebuttal. Please contact our Privacy Officer to determine if you have questions about amending your medical record.

You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures we have made, if any, of your protected health information. You have the right to request a list of certain disclosures of your protected health information made by us during a specified period of up to six years prior to the request except disclosures for treatment, payment or health care operations; made to you; for our facility directory; to persons involved in your care or for the purpose of notifying your family or friends of your whereabouts; for national security or intelligence purposes; made pursuant to your written authorizations; incidental to another permissible use or disclosure; for certain notification purposes (including national security, intelligence, correctional, and law enforcement purposes); or made before April 14, 2003. If you wish to make such a request, please contact our Privacy Officer. The first accounting that you request in a 12-month period will be free, but we may charge you for our reasonable costs of providing additional lists in the same 12-month period. We will tell you about these costs, and you may choose to cancel your request at any time before costs are incurred.

You will receive a paper copy of this notice from us, upon request, even if you have agreed to accept this Notice electronically. To obtain a copy, please contact our Privacy Officer.

Complaints

You may complain to us or to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated by us. You may file a complaint with us by notifying our Privacy Officer of your complaint in writing. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

You may contact our Privacy Officer, Brian Dieter CFO, Vice President at 515-239-2106 for further information about the complaint process.

This notice was published and becomes effective on April 14, 2003.

Website

This is how we handle the information we learn from you when you visit the Mary Greeley Medical Center Web site. The information we receive depends on what you do during your visit.

Forms and Email

We do not obtain personal information (e.g. name, address, email address, etc.) about you when you visit the Mary Greeley Medical Center Web site unless you choose voluntarily to provide such information to us. If you identify yourself by sending an email, by using a form like "Make An Appointment," or by registering to receive information from us, there are a few things you should know.

Select staff members at Mary Greeley Medical Center may see the material you submit.
The information you send may be entered into our electronic database to share with our physicians, other health care professionals or our Community Relations staff.
In other limited circumstances, including requests from legal authorities, we may be required by law to disclose information you submit.

Please note that electronic mail and other Internet communications channels are not necessarily secure against interception. While we take precautions, such as encrypting communications where appropriate, if your communication is very sensitive, or includes information like your diagnosis or medical history, you might want to send it by postal mail instead.

Server

Our Web server automatically collects and stores the following information about you, none of which is linked to your personal identity:

Name of the domain from which you access the Internet
Date and time you access our service
Pages you visit
Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly to us
Name and release number of Web browser software you are using

We use this information to help us make the Mary Greeley Medical Center Web site more useful to you. We do not use cookies to collect information.

Under no circumstances will we ever disclose (to a third party) personal information about individual medical conditions or interests, except when required by law.

Our Web site also provides links to other useful or interesting web site, including the ADAM health information database, that are not owned or controlled by Mary Greeley Medical Center. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of these Web site owners.

If you have questions or comments about our privacy policy, please contact us.