Each time you visit Dr. DeBias, a record of your visit
is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms,
examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment,
and a plan for future care or treatment. This may include
information about drug abuse, sexual conduct, psychiatric
disease, mental health issues, sexually transmitted
diseases, AIDS, and other personal information. This
information, often referred to as your health or medical
record, serves as a:
• Basis for planning your care and treatment,
• Means of communication among the many health
professionals who contribute to your care,
• Legal document describing the care you received,
• Means by which you or a third-party payer can
verify that services billed were actually provided,
• A tool in educating health professionals,
• A source of data for medical research,
• A source of information for public health officials
charged with improving the health of this state and
the nation,
• A source of data for our planning and marketing,
and
• A tool with which we can assess and continually
work to improve the care we render and the outcomes
we achieve.
Understanding what is in your record and how your health
information is used helps you to: ensure its accuracy,
better understand who, what, when, where, and why others
may access your health information, and make more informed
decisions when authorizing disclosure to others.
We will use your health information for treatment.
For example: Information obtained by a nurse, physician,
or other member of your health care team will be recorded
in your record and used to determine the course of treatment
that should work best for you. Your physician will document
in your record his or her expectations of the members
of your health care team.
Members of your health care team will then record the
actions they took and their observations. In that way,
the physician will know how you are responding to treatment.
We will also provide your physician or a subsequent
health care provider with copies of various reports
that should assist him or her in treating you once you’re
discharged from the hospital.
We will use your health information for payment.
For example: A bill may be sent to you or a third-party
payer. The information on or accompanying the bill may
include information that identifies you, as well as
your diagnosis, procedures, and supplies used.
We will use your health information for regular health
operations.
For example: Members of the medical staff, the risk
or quality improvement manager, or members of the quality
improvement team may use information in your health
record to assess the care and outcomes in your case
and others like it. This information will then be used
in an effort to continually improve the quality and
effectiveness of the healthcare and service we provide.
Business associates: There are some services provided
in our office through contracts with business associates.
Examples include physician services in the emergency
department and radiology, certain laboratory tests,
and a billing service we use. 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 protect
your health information, however, we require the business
associate to appropriately safeguard your information.
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, your location, and general condition.
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.
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.
Funeral directors: We may disclose health information
to funeral directors consistent with applicable law
to carry out their duties.
Organ procurement organizations: Consistent with applicable
law, we may disclose health information to organ procurement
organizations or other entities engaged in the procurement,
banking, or transplantation of organs for the purpose
of tissue donation or transplant.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA): We may disclose
to the FDA health information relative to adverse events
with respect to food, supplements, product and product
defects, or post marketing surveillance information
to enable product recalls, repairs, or replacement.
Worker’s compensation: We may disclose health
information to the extent authorized by and to the extent
necessary to comply with laws relating to workers compensation
or other similar programs established by law.
Public Health: As required by law, we may disclose
your health information to public health or legal authorities
charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury,
or disability.
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.
Law enforcement: We may disclose health information
for law enforcement purposes as required by law or in
response to a valid subpoena.
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
work force 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, workers or the public.
Dr. DeBias is required to:
• Maintain the privacy of your health information.
• Provide you with this 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, and
• Accommodate reasonable requests you may have
to communicate health information by alternative means
or at alternative locations.
We reserve the right to change our practices and to
make the new provisions effective for all protected
health information we maintain. Should our information
practices change, we will mail a revised notice to the
address you’ve supplied us, or if you agree, we
will e-mail the revised notice to you.
We will not use or disclose your health information
without your authorization, except as described in this
notice. We will also discontinue using or disclosing
your health information after we have received a written
revocation of the authorization according to the procedures
included in the authorization.
