This Part II of the policy describes how we
protect your privacy as a user of this Service; not as a patient.
If you are a patient of a CHW medical facility, you have other
rights with respect to data within a designated record set, which
is a term defined under the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
("HIPAA"). For a more complete description of a patient's
rights under HIPAA, please refer to the Joint Notice of Privacy
Practices of your specific CHW medical facility by
clicking here.
Web Site Privacy
Statement
We do not sell or rent personal information received through your
use of this Service.
This Service has security measures in place
to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of
information under our control. These measures include encryption of
data using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) system, and using a
secured messaging service when we send you personal information
electronically. Despite these measures, the confidentiality of any
communication or material transmitted to or from us via this
Service by Internet or e-mail cannot be guaranteed. At your
discretion, you may contact us at the mailing address or telephone
number listed under a particular CHW facility website herein. If
you have privacy or data security related questions, please feel
free to contact the office identified at the end of this
document.
Use of Data
Received in Pre-Registration or Referral
Forms
Should you submit information on a pre-registration form using this
Service, the data ("Data") therein may become part of a designated
record set that we create for you. However, such Data will not be
reviewed by a healthcare provider and will not be deemed part of
our designated record set unless and until you are registered in
person at our medical facility. Should you fail to be registered in
person at the CHW medical facility and date designated, we will
keep the Data for up to thirty (30) days and thereafter delete it
from our files.
Site Visitor
data
CHW routinely gathers data on activity at this Service site, such
as how many people visit the site, the pages they visit, where they
come from, how long they stay on the site, etc. The data is
collected on an aggregate, anonymous basis, which means that no
personally identifiable information is associated with the data.
This data helps us improve the Service for you, including it site
content and overall usage. The information is not shared with other
organizations for their independent use.
Collecting and
using personal information
Except as disclosed in this policy and the Joint Notice of Privacy
Practices, we do not collect any identifiable information about
visitors to this site.
1. Web
logs
We maintain standard web logs that record data about all visitors
and customers who use this site and we store this information for a
while. These logs may contain the Internet domain from which you
access the site (such as aol.com, abc.org, etc.); the IP address
which is automatically assigned to your computer when you get on
the Internet (a static IP address may be identifiable as being
connected to you, while a dynamic address is usually not
identifiable); the type of browser and operating system you use;
the date and time you visited the site; the pages you viewed on the
site; the address of the website you linked from, if any. If you
sign on to this Service to use its secured features, our web logs
will also contain an individual identifier and show the services
you have accessed.
All web logs are stored securely, and may
only be accessed by CHW employees or designees on a need-to-know
basis for a specific purpose. CHW uses web log information to help
us design our site, to identify popular features, to resolve user,
hardware, and software problems, and to make the site more useful
to visitors.
2. Internet
cookies
We may place Internet "cookies" on the computer hard drives of
visitors to this Service site. Information we obtain from cookies
helps us to tailor our site to be more helpful and efficient for
you. The cookie consists of a unique identifier that does not
contain information about you or your health history. We use two
types of cookies, "session" cookies and "persistent" cookies.
A session cookie is temporary, and expires
after you end a session and close your web browser. We use session
cookies to help customize your experience on our site, maintain
your signed-on status as you navigate through our features, and to
track your "click path" through our web pages.
Persistent cookies remain on your hard drive
after you've exited from our site, and we use them for several
reasons. For instance, when you give us permission to "remember" a
feature about you when asked by the web site, such as your nearest
CHW medical facility, we place a persistent cookie on your hard
drive so that the next time you visit us, we won't have to ask you
that information again. If you've given us permission to e-mail you
with information about your CHW health care services, or for other
reasons, we may place a persistent cookie on your hard drive that
will let us know when you come back to visit our site. We sometimes
use this type of persistent cookie with a "web beacon" (see below).
Persistent cookies will not contain any personal information about
you such as a Catholic Healthcare West Health/Medical Record
number.
You may have software on your computer that
will allow you to decline or deactivate Internet cookies, but if
you do so, some features of this site may not work properly for
you. For instructions on how to remove cookies from your hard
drive, go to your browser's help file for detailed instructions and
browser updates available from the browser licensor. In addition,
further information regarding cookies may be available on other
websites or from your Internet service provider. Netscape and
Internet Explorer are two common browsers.
3. Web
beacons
We may also occasionally use "web beacons" (also known as "clear
gifs," "web bugs, " "1-pixel gifs," etc.) that allow us to collect
non-personal information about your response to our e-mail
communications, and for other purposes. Web beacons are tiny
images, placed on a Web page or e-mail, that can tell us if you've
gone to a particular area on our Service site. For example, if
you've given us permission to send you e-mails, we may send you an
e-mail urging you to use a certain feature of this Service. If you
do respond to that e-mail and use that feature, the web beacon will
tell us that our e-mail communication with you has been successful.
We do not collect any personal health information with a web
beacon, and do not link web beacons with any other personal health
information you've given us.
Since Web beacons are used in conjunction
with persistent cookies (described above), if you set your browser
to decline or deactivate cookies, Web beacons cannot function.
4.
E-mails
We may use a
third-party vendor to help us manage some of our e-mail
communications with you. While we may supply this vendor with
e-mail addresses of those we wish them to contact, your e-mail
address is never used for any purpose other than to communicate
with you on our behalf. When you click on a link in an e-mail, you
may temporarily be redirected through one of the vendor's servers
(although this process will be invisible to you) which will
register that you've clicked on that link, and have visited our
Service site. CHW never shares any information, other than your
e-mail address, with our third-party e-mail vendor, which does not
share these e-mail addresses with anyone else.
Even if you have given us permission to send
e-mails to you, you may revoke that permission at any time by
following the "unsubscribe" information at the bottom of each such
e-mail.
5. Evaluation
and research
We will
periodically ask users to complete surveys asking about their
experiences with features of the Web site. Our surveys ask visitors
for demographic information such as age, gender, and education, but
will not request in such surveys that users provide specific
information about any medical condition. We use survey information
for research and quality improvement purposes, including helping
CHW to improve information and services offered through this
Service. In addition, users giving feedback may be individually
contacted for follow-up due to concerns raised during the course of
such evaluation. Demographic information and web log data may be
stored for future research and evaluation.
6. Messages and
transactions
Comments or questions sent to us using e-mail or secure messaging
forms will be shared with CHW staff and health care professionals
who are most able to address your concerns. We will archive your
messages once we have made our best effort to provide you with a
complete and satisfactory response. However, they will not become
part of your medical record or a designated record set unless and
until you are seen and examined in person by a CHW healthcare
professional.
When you use a service on the secure section
of this Web site to interact directly with Catholic Healthcare West
health care professionals, some information you provide may be
documented in your medical record, and available for use to guide
your treatment as a patient.
7. Credit card
transactions
If you provide us with your credit card number for pharmacy
prescriptions or other payments, we will treat your credit card
number in a secure manner. But your credit card number should never
be entered into an unsecured website page. Not all pages on this
Service are intended to be secure. Only provide a credit card
number in the box that we specifically designate.
8. Data
integrity and correction
Requests to view and correct personal information on this Service
that is documented in your medical record may be submitted using
the contact information provided at the end of the Joint Notice of
Privacy Practices for your specific CHW medical facility
(list of CHW facilities and
homehealth agencies).
9.
Children
We do not knowingly allow or solicit anyone under the age of 13 to
participate in any activity at this site, and we do not knowingly
allow CHW patients under the age of 13 to create accounts that
allow access to the secured features of this site.)
10.
Disclosures
We may disclose
personal information to any person performing audit, legal,
operational, or other services for us. We will use information
which does not identify the individual for these activities
whenever feasible. Personal information disclosed to vendors or
contractors for our operational purposes may not be re-disclosed to
others by such a vendor or contractor.
We may disclose personal information when
required to do so by a subpoena, court order, or search warrant. We
may disclose personal information as we deem it appropriate to
protect the safety of an individual or for an investigation related
to public safety or to report an activity that appears to be in
violation of law. We may disclose personal information to protect
the security and reliability of this Service and to take
precautions against liability.
11. Opt
out
If a user makes a request to receive information in an ongoing
manner through this Service by providing their e-mail address (for
example, requesting a subscription to one of our online
publications), a user may make a request to discontinue future
mailings. Similarly, if you receive information about a CHW service
through e-mail, you may make a request to discontinue receiving
similar messages in the future. All such materials sent to you by
e-mail will contain information about how to opt out.
