Yampa Valley Medical Center Notice of Privacy Practices
Effective Date: April 14, 2003
This notice describes how health information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.
If you have any questions about this notice, please call the Privacy Official at 970-875-2770. YVMC’s Health Information Management (Medical Records) department is open Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Each time you visit a hospital, physician or other healthcare provider, a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment, a plan for future care or treatment, and billing-related information. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by Yampa Valley Medical Center (YVMC), whether made by YVMC personnel, agents of the hospital, or your personal doctor. Your doctor may have different policies or notices regarding use and disclosure of your health information created in the doctor’s office or clinic.
Our responsibilities to you
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and provide you a description of our privacy practices.
Uses and disclosures
How we may use and disclose health information about you
The following categories describe examples of the way we use and disclose health information:
For treatment: We may use and disclose your health information to provide you treatment or services. We may disclose health information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, health students or other hospital personnel involved in your care at the hospital or at other covered entities. For example, a doctor treating you for a broken leg may need to know if you have diabetes because diabetes may slow the healing process. Different hospital departments also may share health information about you in order to coordinate the different things you may need, such as prescriptions, lab work, meals and x-rays.
We also may provide your physician or a subsequent healthcare provider with copies of various reports that should assist him or her in treating you once you are discharged from YVMC.
For payment: We may use and disclose health information about your treatment and services so that we can bill and receive payment for the treatment and services you receive. For example, we may need to give your insurance company information about your surgery so they will pay us or reimburse you for the treatment. We may also tell your health plan about treatment you are going to receive to determine whether your plan will cover it.
For healthcare operations: Members of the medical staff and/or quality improvement team may use information in your health record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it. The results will then be used to continually improve the quality of care for all patients we serve. For example, we may combine health information about many hospital patients to evaluate the need for new services or treatment. We may also disclose information to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, and other hospital personnel for educational purposes. And we may combine the health information we have with health information from other hospitals to see where we can make improvements. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of health information to protect your privacy.
We may also use and disclose health information:
- To business associates we have contracted with to perform the agreed-upon service and billing for it;
- To remind you that you have an appointment for medical care;
- To assess your satisfaction with our services;
- To tell you about possible treatment alternatives;
- To tell you about health-related benefits or services;
- To contact you as part of fund-raising efforts;
- To inform funeral directors consistent with applicable law;
- For population-based activities relating to improving health or reducing healthcare costs;
- For conducting training programs or reviewing competence of healthcare professionals.
Business associates: Some services are provided at YVMC through contracts with business associates. Examples include physician services in the emergency department and radiology and some lab tests. We may disclose your health information to our business associates so that they can perform the job we’ve asked them to do and bill you or your third-party payer for services rendered. To protect your health information, we require business associates to appropriately safeguard it.
Directory: We may include limited information about you in the hospital directory while you are a patient. The information may include your name, location in the hospital, your general condition (such as good, fair, etc.) and your religious affiliation, if you designate one. This information may be provided to members of the clergy and (except for religious affiliation) to other people who ask for you by name. If you would like to opt out of being in the directory, please request the Opt-Out Form from the admission staff or Privacy Official.
Individuals involved in your care or payment for your care: Unless you object, we may disclose health information about you to a family member, close personal friend or other person you identify who is involved in your care or who helps pay for your care. In addition, we may disclose health 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.
Research: We may disclose information to researchers when an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information has approved their research.
Future communications: We may communicate to you via newsletters or mailings regarding treatment options, health-related information, disease-management programs, wellness programs or other community initiatives or activities that YVMC is participating in.
Organized healthcare arrangement: YVMC and its medical staff have organized and are presenting you this document as a joint notice. Information will be shared as necessary to carry out treatment, payment and healthcare operations. Physicians and caregivers may have access to your health information in their offices to assist in treatment plans.
As required by law, we may use and disclose your health information for the following types of entities, including but not limited to:
- Food and Drug Administration
- Public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability.
- Correctional institutions
- Workers Compensation agents
- Organ and tissue donation organizations
- Military command authorities
- Health Oversight Agencies
- Funeral directors, coroners and medical directors
- National security and intelligence agencies
- Protective government services
Law enforcement/legal proceedings: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.