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Notice of Privacy Practices

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How We May Use And Disclose Medical Information About You

The following categories describe examples of the way we use and disclose medical information. 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 these categories.

For Treatment.
We may use medical information about you to provide you with medical treatment or services. We may disclose medical information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, or other hospital personnel who are involved in taking care of you at the hospital. 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 departments of the hospital also may share medical information about you in order to coordinate the different things you need, such as prescriptions, lab work and x-rays.

We may also 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 this hospital.

For Payment.
We may use and disclose medical information about your treatment and services to bill and collect payment from you, your insurance company or a third party. For example, we may need to give your insurance company information about your surgery so your health plan will pay us or reimburse you for the surgery. We may also tell your health plan about a treatment you are going to receive to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment.

For Health Care 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 use your information in our registry data, such as the Cancer Registry. We may also combine medical information about many patients to evaluate the need for new services or treatment. We may disclose information to doctors, nurses, and other students for educational purposes. And we may combine medical information we have with that of other hospitals to see where we can make improvements. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of medical information to protect your privacy.

For The Following Activities You Must Notify Us If You Want To Limit Or Restrict Information:

* To remind you that you have an appointment for medical care;
* To assess your satisfaction with our services;
* To individuals involved in the payment for your care;
* 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.

We may also use and disclose medical information:

* To business associates we have contracted with to perform the agreed upon service and billing for it;
* To inform funeral directors consistent with applicable law;
* To health oversight agencies;
* For population based activities relating to improving health or reducing health care costs; and
* For conducting training programs or reviewing competence of health care professionals.

Hospital Directory. We may include certain limited information about you in the hospital directory while you are a patient at the hospital. This information may include your name, location in the hospital, your general condition (e.g., fair, stable, etc.) and your religious affiliation. The directory information, except for your religious affiliation, may also be released to people who ask for you by name. This is so your family, friends and clergy can visit you in the hospital and generally know how you are doing. If you consent, 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. Your name will appear on a religious preference list. If you do not consent, your name will not appear on this preference listing.

Individuals Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care. We may release medical information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care or who helps pay for your care. 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.

Business Associates.
There are some services provided in our organization through contracts with business associates. Examples include physician services in the emergency department and radiology, certain laboratory tests, and a copy service we use when making copies of your health record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associate 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 pcrotect your health information, we require the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.

Research
Information may be released to researchers, but only after an institutional review board has reviewed and approved the research proposal and made certain the researchers have established protocols to ensure your health information privacy.

As Required By Law. Such disclosures may include provision of health information for State and national disease registries and databases that use the data to identify health needs and improve health care services. We will disclose medical information about you to the following when required to do so by federal, state or local law:

* 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 Services for the President and Other
* To advert a serious threat to health or safety
* Lawsuits and disputes (response to a court or administrative order)

Law Enforcement/Legal Proceedings.
We may disclose information for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid request, such as:

* In response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons or similar process;
* To identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person;
* About the victim of a crime if, under certain limited circumstances, we are unable to obtain the person’s agreement;
* About a death we believe may be the result of a criminal conduct;
* About criminal conduct within EHS;
* In emergency circumstances to report a crime; the location of the crime or victims; or the identity, description or location of the person who committed the crime.

State Specific Requirements.
Tennessee has requirements for reporting data, including population-based activities relating to improving health or reducing health care costs.

Customer Service.
As part of our customer service program, we may use health information about you to contact you by mail or phone after discharge to discuss your opinion of the services provided during your encounter with our facility

Follow Up Contact.
We may use health information about you to contact you by mail or phone following treatment if it is determined you may require additional follow-up. We may also contact you or your personal physician on how you are doing following treatment at EHS. For example, follow-up information is very important in the area of cancer diagnosis in order to find the best treatments and improve the life expectancy of individuals as diagnosed with cancer.

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