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Mercy Medical
Center Redding
Joint Notice of Privacy Practices for Medical
Information
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION
ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO
THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
WHO MUST FOLLOW
THIS NOTICE?
Mercy Medical Center Redding provides you
(the patient) with health care by working with doctors and many
other health care providers (referred to as we, our or us).
This is a joint notice of our information privacy practices.
The following people or groups will follow this notice:
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any health care provider who comes to Mercy Medical Center
Redding to care for you. These professionals include
doctors, nurses, technicians, physician assistants and
others.
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all departments and units of our organization, including
skilled nursing, home health, clinics, outpatient services,
mobile units, hospice, and emergency department.
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our employees, contractors, students and volunteers,
including regional support offices and
affiliates.
OUR PLEDGE TO
YOU
We understand that medical information about
you is private and personal. We are committed to protecting
it. Hospitals, doctors and other staff make a record each
time you visit. This notice applies to the records of
your care at Mercy Medical Center Redding whether created by
hospital staff or your doctor. Your doctor and other
health care providers may have different practices or notices about
their use and sharing of medical information in their own offices
or clinics. We will gladly explain this notice to you
or your family member.
We are required by law to:
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keep medical information about you private.
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give you this notice describing our legal duties and privacy
practices for medical information about you.
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follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect.
HOW WE MAY USE AND SHARE YOUR MEDICAL
INFORMATION
This section of our notice tells how we may
use medical information about you. In all cases not covered by this
notice, we will get a separate written permission from you before
we use or share your medical information. You can later
cancel your permission by notifying us in writing.
We will protect medical information as much
as we can under the law. Sometimes state law gives more
protection to medical information than federal law. Sometimes
federal law gives more protection than state law.
In each case, we will apply the laws that protect medical
information the most.
Catholic Healthcare West is a large health
system. We may use or share medical information about you
with hospital personnel at any Catholic Healthcare West hospital or
facility for treatment, payment and health care operations. Please
contact the Facility Privacy Office (at the address below) for a
list of all Catholic Healthcare West facilities.
EXAMPLES:
Treatment: We will use and share medical
information about you for purposes of treatment. An example
is sending medical information about you to your doctor or to a
specialist as part of a referral.
Payment: We will use and share medical
information about you so we can be paid for treating you. An
example is giving information about you to your health plan or to
Medicare.
Health care operations: We will use and share
medical information about you for our health care operations.
Examples are using information about you to improve the quality of
care we give you, for disease management programs, patient
satisfaction surveys, compiling medical information, de-identifying
medical information and benchmarking.
Appointment reminders: We may contact
you with appointment reminders.
Treatment options and health-related benefits
and services: We may contact you about possible treatment
options, health-related benefits or services that you might
want.
Fund-raising activities: We may use
limited information to contact you for fundraising. We may
also share such information with our fundraising foundation.
Research: We may share your medical
information for research projects, such as studying the
effectiveness of a treatment you received. We will usually
get your written permission to use or share medical information for
research. Under certain circumstances we may
share medical information about you without your written permission
however these research projects must go through a special process
that protects the confidentiality of your medical information.
Facility Directory: Unless you tell us
otherwise, we may list your name, location in the hospital, your
general condition (good, fair, etc.) and your religious affiliation
in our directory. We will give this information (except your
religious affiliation) to anyone who asks about you by name.
Your religious affiliation will be given only to appropriate clergy
members.
Public Health: We will report certain medical
information for public health purposes. For example, we are
required by law to report births, deaths and certain diseases to
the state. We may also report problems with medicines or
medical products to the manufacturer and to the FDA. We may
tell you about recalls of products you are using.
Required by Law: We are sometimes required by
law to report certain information. For example,
we must report abuse or neglect. We also must give
information to your employer about work-related illness,
injury or workplace-related medical surveillance. Another
example is that we will share information about tumors with state
tumor registries for their research purposes.
Public Safety: We may, and sometimes
have to share medical information about you in order to prevent or
lessen a serious threat to the health or safety of a particular
person or the general public.
Health Oversight Activities: We may share
medical information about you for health oversight activities,
audits or inspections.
Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral
Directors: We may share medical information about deceased patients
with coroners, medical examiners and funeral
directors.
Organ and Tissue Donation: We may share
medical information with organizations that handle organ, eye or
tissue donation or transplantation.
Military, Veterans, National Security and
Other Government Purposes: We may use or share medical information
about you for national security purposes. We may share medical
information about you with the military for military command
purposes when you are a member of the armed forces.
Judicial Proceedings: We may use or share
medical information about you in response to court orders or
subpoenas only when we have followed procedures required by
law.
Law Enforcement California: We may
share medical information about you with police (or other law
enforcement personnel) without your written permission:
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If the police bring you to the hospital and ask us to test
your blood for alcohol or substance abuse
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If the police present a valid search warrant
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If the police present a valid court order
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To report abuse, neglect, or assaults as required or
permitted by law
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To report certain threats to third parties
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If you are in police custody or are an inmate of a
correctional institution and the information is necessary to
provide you with health care, to protect your health and
safety, the health and safety of others or for the safety and
security of the correctional institution.
Family Members and Others Involved in Your
Care: Unless you tell us otherwise, we may share medical
information about you with friends, family members, or others you
have named who help with your care. We may use or share
medical information about you with disaster organizations so that
your family can be notified of your location and condition in case
of disaster or other emergency.
YOUR RIGHTS
REGARDING MEDICAL INFORMATION
Requesting Information about
You:
In most cases, when you ask in writing, you can look at or get a
copy of medical information about you. We will give you
a form to fill out to make the request. You can look at
medical information about you for free. If you request copies of
the information we may charge a fee for the cost of copying,
mailing or other related supplies. If we say no to your
request to look at the information or get a copy of it, you may ask
us in writing for a review of that decision.
Correcting Information about
You:
If you believe that information about you is wrong or missing, you
can ask us in writing to correct the records. We will
give you a form to fill out to make the request. We may say
no to your request to correct a record if the information was not
created or kept by us or if we determine the record is complete and
correct. If we say no to your request, you can ask us in
writing to review that denial.
Obtaining a List of Certain Disclosures of
Information: You can ask in writing for a listing of every time we
have shared medical information about you, other than for
treatment, payment, health care operations or where you have given
us written permission for the sharing. Your request must
state the time period for the listing, which must be less than 6
years starting after April 14, 2003. The first request in a
12-month period is free. We will charge you for any
additional requests for our cost of producing the list. We
will give you an estimate of the cost when you request the
additional list.
Restricting How We Use or Share Information
about You: You can ask that medical information be given to
you in a confidential manner. You must tell us in writing of
the exact way or place for us to communicate with you.
You also can ask in writing that we limit our
use or sharing of medical information about you. For example,
you can ask that we use or share medical information about you only
with persons involved in your care. We will consider
your request but we may not be able to agree to it. We are
not legally required to agree to your request. We will tell
you of our decision on your request.
All written requests or requests for review
of denials should be given to our Facility Privacy Office listed at
the end of this notice.
CHANGES TO THIS
NOTICE
We may change our privacy practices from time
to time. Changes will apply to current medical information,
as well as new information after the change occurs. If we
make an important change, we will change our notice. We will
also post the new notice in our facilities and on our Web site at:
www.chwHEALTH.org/privacy. You can ask in
writing for a copy of this notice at any time by contacting the
Facility Privacy Office. If our notice has
changed, we will give you a copy of the notice the next time you
register for treatment.
DO YOU HAVE
CONCERNS OR COMPLAINTS?
If you think your privacy rights may have
been violated, you may contact our Facility Privacy Office (listed
below). You may also contact our Chief Privacy and Data
Security Administrator at (415) 438-5565. Finally, you may
send a written complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, Office of Civil Rights. Our Facility Privacy Office
can provide you the address. We will not take any action
against you for filing a complaint.
Mercy Medical Center
Redding,
Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta,
St. Elizabeth Community Hospital
Facility Privacy Office
2175 Rosaline Ave.
Redding, CA 96001
(530) 225-6146
(530) 242-5077
www.chwHEALTH.org/privacy
Mercy Medical Center General
Information: (530) 225-6000
Version effective: December 31, 2004
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