Patient Privacy

Although your health record is the physical property of the healthcare practitioner or facility that compiled it, the information belongs to you. As provided by federal law, specifically 45 CFR 164 STANDARDS FOR PRIVACY OF INDIVIDUALLY IDENTIFIABLE HEALTH INFORMATION; FINAL RULE, you have the right to:

• request a restriction on certain uses and disclosures of your information. In some cases, it may not be feasible for us to agree to the requested restriction, and in most cases, by law, we are not required to do so. Woman's Hospital will agree to restrict disclosure of your health information to a health plan if the purpose of the disclosure is to carry out payment or healthcare operations, and the information pertains solely to a service for which you, or another person other than the health plan, has paid Woman's Hospital in full.
• obtain a paper copy of the Notice of Health Information Practices by request from the hospital's Health Information Management Department;
• inspect and obtain a copy of your health record as also provided for in Louisiana law (R.S. 40:1299.96). For health records in a designated record set that are maintained in an electronic format, you may request an electronic copy of such information. There may be a charge for these copies.
• request an amendment to your health record. You have the right to ask us to change your health information related to treatment or billing if you think that there is a mistake or that information is missing;
• obtain an accounting of disclosures of your health information;
• request communications of your health information by alternative means or at alternative locations;
• revoke, in writing, your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken;
• be notified, in the event that we (or one of our business associates or business associate subcontractors) discovers a breach of unsecured, protected health information involving your medical information.

Woman's Hospital is required to:

• maintain the privacy of your health information;
• provide you with a notice as to our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you;
• abide by the terms of this notice;
• notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction or amendment;
• accommodate any reasonable request you may have to communicate health information by alternative means or at alternative locations.

Federal Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, 45 CFR 164 is effective on or after April 14, 2003. Woman’s Hospital reserves the right to change our practices and to make new provisions effective for all individually identifiable health information we maintain. Should our information practices change, we will make the new version of this Privacy Practices Notice available to you upon request.

Requests for restrictions, or to inspect, copy or amend medical information must be made in writing and submitted to the Director of Health Information Management, 100 Woman’s Way, Baton Rouge, LA 70817. Requests for an accounting of disclosures must also be submitted to the Director of Health Information Management. If you have questions and would like additional information, you may contact the Woman’s Hospital Patient Relations Coordinator at 225-231-5555. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you can file a formal complaint with the Patient Relations Coordinator or with the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.

The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose medical information. For each category of uses or disclosures, we will provide an explanation of meaning and give some examples. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways we are permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.

Pursuant to state and federal law, Woman’s Hospital will use your health information for:

Treatment. For example, we may use your medical information to provide you with appropriate medical treatment or services. We may disclose medical information about you to physicians, nurses, technicians, medical students or other hospital personnel who are involved in taking care of you at the hospital. For example, a physician treating you for surgery or a delivery may need to know if you have diabetes so that the hospital can arrange for appropriate meals for you. Different departments of the hospital may share medical information about you in order to coordinate the different services you need, such as prescriptions, lab work and X-rays. We may participate in various health information exchanges with your healthcare providers to facilitate their access to your health information.

Payment. For example, we may use and/or disclose your health information for the purpose of allowing us, as well as other entities, to secure payment for the healthcare services provided to you. We may also tell your health plan about a treatment or prescription you are going to receive in order to obtain prior approval or to determine whether your plan will cover the cost of treatment. In the event that payment is not made, we may also provide limited information to collection agencies, attorneys, credit reporting agencies and other organizations as is necessary to collect payment for services rendered.

Healthcare Operations. For example, we may use information in your health record to assess the care and outcomes in our efforts to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the healthcare and service we provide.

Business Associates. There are some services provided in our organization through contracts with business associates. Examples include: consultants, record storage facilities, accreditation organizations, claims processing administrators, software and hardware maintenance vendors. We may disclose your health information to our contracted business associates so that they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do. However, to protect your health information, we require the contracted business associates to appropriately safeguard your information.

Research. Under certain circumstances, we may use and disclose medical information about you for research purposes. For example, a research project may involve comparing the health and recovery of all patients who received one medication to those who received another medication, for the same health condition. All research projects are subject to a special approval process. We may, however, disclose medical information about you to people preparing to conduct a research project.

Coroners and Funeral Directors. We may release medical information to a coroner. This may be necessary, for example, to identify a deceased person or to determine the cause of death. We may also release medical information about patients of the hospital to funeral directors, as necessary, to carry out their duties.

Contacting You. We may contact you about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. In addition, you may be invited to attend special events and celebrations.

Appointment Reminders. We may contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment for treatment or medical care at the hospital or that it is time for your follow-up visit to be scheduled.

Fundraising. We may use certain information (name, address, telephone number or e-mail information, age, date of birth, gender, health insurance status, dates of service, hospital service information, treating physician information or outcome information) to contact you as part of a fundraising effort. We may share this information with a foundation associated with Woman’s Hospital to work on our behalf. You will have the right to opt out of receiving such communications with each solicitation.

Public Health. As authorized by law, we may disclose medical information about you for public health activities. For example, we may disclose your health information in certain circumstances: to prevent or control disease, injury or disability; to report births and deaths; to report child or elder abuse or neglect; to report reactions to medications or problems with products to the FDA; to notify people of recalls of products they may be using; to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease; and to notify the appropriate government authority if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence. We will only make this disclosure if you agree or when required or authorized by law.

Correctional Institution. Should you be an inmate of a correctional institution, we may disclose to the institution or agents thereof health information necessary for your health and the health and safety of other individuals.

Legal Proceeding. We may disclose health information in response to a court order or valid subpoena or to our own attorney in defense or in response to a complaint or claim about services rendered.

Law Enforcement. We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law. Federal law makes provision for your health information to be released to an appropriate health oversight agency, public health authority or attorney, provided that a workforce member or business associate believes in good faith that we have engaged in unlawful conduct, or have otherwise violated professional or clinical standards, and are potentially endangering one or more patients.

As Required By Law. We will disclose medical information about you when required to do so by federal, state or local law.

To Prevent a Serious Threat to Health or Safety. We may use and disclose medical information about you, when necessary, to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety, to the health and safety of the public, or to another person. Any disclosure, however, would only be to someone able to help prevent the threat.

Organ and Tissue Donation. We may disclose medical information to organizations that handle organ, eye or tissue donation or transplantation.

Military and Veterans. If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release medical information about you as required by military command authorities. We may also release medical information about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.

Workers' Compensation. We may release medical information about you for workers’ compensation or similar programs. These programs provide benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses.

Patient Directory. We may include certain limited information about you in the patient directory. This information may include your name, your location in the hospital, your general condition and your religious affiliation. The directory information, except for your religious affiliation, may also be released to people who ask for you by name. Your religious affiliation may be given to a member of the clergy, such as a priest or rabbi, even if they don't ask for you by name. This is so that your family, friends and clergy can visit you in the hospital and generally know how you are doing. If you are not provided the opportunity to object to being included in the directory due to emergency treatment circumstances, you will be provided the opportunity when it is feasible to do so.

Notification. We may use or disclose information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or another person responsible for your care, of your location and general condition. In addition, we may disclose medical information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location.

Communication with Family. Health professionals, using their best judgment, may disclose to a family member, other relative, close personal friend or any other person you identify, health information relevant to that person’s involvement in your care or payment related to your care. If you do not wish hospital personnel to have contact or communication with your family, you may inform us of your objection.

Uses and disclosures of your health information for marketing or for disclosures that constitute the sale of protected health information require your written authorization. Other uses and disclosures of medical information not covered by this notice, or the laws that apply to us, will be made only with your written authorization. If you authorize us to use or disclose medical information about you, you may revoke that authorization, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose medical information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. We are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your prior authorization, and we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you.