This notice describes how certain information about you (the patient) 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 contact Nemours’ Privacy Officer at – (904) 697-4287 (Direct Line), or 1-800-SOS-KIDS.
Who Will Follow This Notice
This notice describes the privacy practices of Nemours, which includes the following:
- Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children (N/AIDHC)
- Nemours Children's Clinic locations in Delaware, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
- Nemours Pediatric offices in Delaware and Pennsylvania
- Nemours Cardiac Center
- Nemours Health Center
- Nemours Associates at the Thomas Jefferson College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics
- Any health care professional authorized to enter information into your health record
- All departments and units of any N/AIDHC operating entity
- Any member of a volunteer group that we allow to help you while you are in a N/AIDHC entity
- All employees, staff, and other N/AIDHC personnel, students, and observers.
All NEMOURS/AIDHC entities, sites, and locations abide by the terms of this notice. In addition, these entities, sites, and locations may share certain information with each other for treatment, payment, or hospital operations purposes as described in this notice.
Our Pledge Regarding Certain Information
We understand that certain information about patients and their health is personal. We are committed to protecting that information. We create a record of the care and services patients receive at Nemours. We need this record to provide our patients with quality care and to comply with certain legal requirements. This notice applies to all of the records of our patient’s care generated by Nemours, whether made by Nemours’ personnel, a personal doctor, or others relating to our patient’s healthcare. An individual’s personal doctor, if not employed by Nemours, may have different policies or notices regarding his/her use and disclosure of information created in his/her office or clinic. This notice will tell you about the ways in which Nemours may use and disclose certain information about patients.
This notice also describes the rights of patients and/or their parents or guardians (personal representatives) and certain obligations Nemours has regarding the use and disclosure of that information.
Nemours is required by law to:
- Make sure that certain information that identifies patients is kept private,
- Give you this notice of Nemours legal duties and privacy practices with respect to certain information about patients, and
- Follow the terms of the notice that are currently in effect.
How Nemours May Use and Disclose Certain Information About Patients
The following categories describe different ways that Nemours uses and discloses certain information. For each category of use or disclosure, an explanation and an example will be given. Not every use or disclosure in a category will be listed. However, all of the ways Nemours is permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of these categories.
For Treatment. Nemours may use certain information about patients to provide them with medical treatment or services. Nemours may disclose certain information about patients to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, or other personnel who are involved in taking care of them. For example, a doctor treating a patient for a broken leg may need to know if he/she has diabetes, because diabetes may slow the healing process. For hospitalized patients, the doctor may need to tell a dietician if the patient has diabetes so that appropriate meals can be arranged. Nemours may also share certain information about patients in order to coordinate the different things patients need, such as prescriptions, lab work, and x-rays. Nemours also may disclose certain information about patients among departments, operating divisions, and with outside providers who may be involved in their medical care after they leave the hospital or office.
For Payment. Nemours may use and disclose certain information about patients so that the treatment and services provided may be billed to, and payment collected from, the responsible individual, an insurance company, or a third party. For example, Nemours may need to give your insurance company information about treatment provided so they will pay us or reimburse you for the service. Nemours may also tell your insurance company about treatment a patient is going to receive to obtain prior approval (authorization), or to determine whether the insurance plan will cover the proposed treatment.
For Health Care Operations. Nemours may use and disclose certain information about patients for business operations. These uses and disclosures are necessary to run Nemours and make sure that all patients receive quality care. For example, we may use certain information to review treatment and services and to evaluate the performance of staff in caring for patients. Nemours stores patient information in large databases that combine certain information about many patients to decide what additional services should be offered, what services are not needed, and whether certain treatments are effective. We may also disclose information to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical and other students, and other Nemours’ personnel for review and learning purposes. We may also combine certain information we have with information from other facilities to compare how we are doing and to see where we can make improvements in the care and services we offer. We may remove information that identifies patients from this set of information so that others may use it to study health care and health care delivery without learning the identity of individual patients.
Appointment Reminders. Nemours may use and disclose certain information to contact you by phone, email, or US Postal Service as a reminder that the patient has an appointment for treatment or medical care at one of our facilities.
Marketing. Nemours may use certain information about our patients in order to send them educational material related to their illness or condition. For example, if you or your child has diabetes, we may send you a periodic newsletter in the mail that contains information about living with diabetes. You may ask us to stop sending this information to you at any time, and we will do so.
Nemours doctors (and other staff) may advise you about certain treatment alternatives related to a patient’s illness or condition. For example, if a patient has a chronic cough, we may recommend one or more brand name cough medicines for you to purchase at a drug store.
Nemours may also tell you about certain health-related benefits and services related to a patient’s illness or condition. For example we might recommend one or more commercial weight-loss programs to the family of a patient who needs to lose weight.
Fundraising Activities. Nemours may use certain information about patients to contact you in an effort to raise money for the organization and its operations. We may disclose certain information to a foundation, which may contact you in raising money for Nemours. We only would release contact information, such as name, address, phone number, and the dates of treatment. If you do not want to be contacted for fundraising efforts, you must notify the Privacy Officer in writing. In addition, any fundraising effort will include an opportunity for you to tell us to remove your name from future mailings.
Hospital Directory (for AIDHC inpatients only). Nemours may include certain limited information about patients in the hospital directory while they are patients at the hospital. This information may include the patient’s name, location in the hospital, general condition (e.g., fair, serious, etc.), and religious affiliation. This directory information, except for religious affiliation, may also be released to people who ask for the patient by name. This is so a patient’s family, friends, and clergy can visit him/her in the hospital and generally know how he/she is doing. The patient’s religious affiliation may be given to a member of the clergy, such as a priest or rabbi, even if they don’t ask for the patient by name.
Patients who prefer that Nemours not release some or all of this information to friends, family and members of the clergy may elect to opt out of being listed in the directory during the admitting process or at any time after being admitted. You must contact the Admitting Office to remove patient information from the hospital directory.
Others Involved in Your Healthcare: Unless you object, we may disclose to a member of the patient’s family, a relative, a close friend or any other person you identify, the patient’s protected health information that directly relates to that person’s involvement in the patient’s health care. If you are unable to agree or object to such a disclosure, we may disclose such information as necessary if we determine that it is in the patient’s best interest based on our professional judgment. We may use or disclose protected health information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative, or any other person that is responsible for the patient’s care of your location, general condition or death. Finally, we may use or disclose protected health information to an authorized public or private entity to assist in disaster relief efforts and to coordinate uses and disclosures to family or other individuals involved in the patient’s health care.
Research. Nemours may use and /or disclose certain information about our patients for research purposes only when the patient or their parent/legal guardian give their approval to do so, or when an Institutional Review Board (IRB) gives a “waiver” for the disclosure. An IRB is a group of people with the job of assuring that the rights of human research subjects are protected. For example, if a Nemours researcher wants to start a new study of how a drug works for children who have asthma, they might want to know what Nemours patients have asthma. The IRB may give the researcher permission to view a list of such patients provided that the researcher promises to protect the information, use it only for the intended purpose, and not give it to anyone outside of Nemours. The researcher could then use that list to contact patients or their parents/legal guardians to find out if they would be interested in participating in the research study. Nemours may also provide information to a researcher by using a “Limited Data Set.” In this case, some, but not all, identifying information is removed from the information. The information is given to the researcher only after they agree in writing to protect it.
As Required by Law. Nemours must disclose certain information about patients when required to do so by federal, state, or local law.
To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety. Nemours may use or disclose certain information about patients when necessary to prevent a serious threat to the patient’s health and safety or to the health and safety of the public or another person.
Business Associates. Nemours may disclose information to certain business associates who perform health care or business related activities on our behalf. For example, private organizations that accredit (or grade) health care organizations, such as the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, need to see some protected information in order to evaluate how well we do our job. Such business associates are contractually required to protect patient information the same way Nemours does.
Registries. Nemours may send certain information about patients with a specific illness or condition to a registry that maintains similar information about many patients. This information is generally used to help identify the best treatments for the illness, or to keep track of how many people have the illness or condition. For example, information about patients who have cancer is provided to state registries as required by law. If Nemours wants to send information about our patients to registries that are not required by law or not otherwise part of “Operations” as previously described, we will ask for your authorization to disclose the information.
Special Situations
Organ and Tissue Donation. If a patient is an organ donor, or on a waiting list to receive a donation/transplant, Nemours may release certain information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye, or tissue transplantation, or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantation.
Military and Veterans. If a patient is a member of the armed forces, Nemours may release certain information as required by military command authorities. Nemours may also release certain information about foreign military personnel to the appropriate military authority.
Workers’ Compensation. We may release certain information about a patient for Workers’ Compensation or similar programs. These programs provide benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses.
Public Health Risks. Nemours may disclose certain information about patients for public health activities. These activities generally include the following:
- To prevent or control disease, injury, or disability
- To report births and deaths
- To report child abuse or neglect
- To report reactions to medications or problems with products
- 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 or condition
- To notify the appropriate government authority if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.
Health Oversight Activities. Nemours may disclose certain information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law. These oversight activities include, for example, audits, investigations, inspections, and licensure. These activities are necessary for the government to monitor the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.
Lawsuits and Disputes. If involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, Nemours may disclose certain information about patients in response to a court or administrative order. We may also disclose certain information about patients in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute.
Law Enforcement. Nemours may release certain information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official:
- In response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons, or similar process
- To identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person when we are legally required to
- About the victim of a crime if, under certain limited circumstances, we are unable to obtain the person’s agreement and are legally required to do so
- About a death we believe may be the result of suspicious conduct, as required by law
- About criminal conduct within a Nemours’ facility, and
- In emergency circumstances to report a crime, the location of the crime or victims, or the identify, description, or location of the person who committed the crime
Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors. Nemours may release certain information to a coroner or medical examiner. This may be necessary, for example, to identify a deceased person or determine the cause of death. We may also release certain information about patients to funeral directors as necessary to carry out their duties. For example, if a patient dies of HIV, Nemours may be required to tell the funeral director.
National Security and Intelligence Activities. Nemours may release certain information about patients to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, and other national security activities authorized by law.
Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose protected health information to a public health authority that is authorized by law to receive reports of child abuse or neglect. In addition, we may disclose protected health information if we believe that a patient has been a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence to the governmental entity or agency authorized to receive such information. In this case, the disclosure will be made consistent with the requirements of applicable federal and state laws.
Protective Services for the President and Others. Nemours may disclose certain information about patients to authorized federal officials so they may provide protection to the President, other authorized persons, or foreign heads of state, or in order to conduct special investigations.
Inmates. If a patient is an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, Nemours may release certain information about the patient to the correctional institution or law enforcement official. This release would be necessary 1) for the institution to provide the patient with health care, 2) to protect the patient’s health and safety or the health and safety of others, or 3) for the safety and security of the correctional institution.
Patient Rights Regarding Their Information
Nemours patients and/or their Personal Representatives have the following rights regarding certain information we obtain about the patient:
Right to Inspect and Copy. Patients have the right to inspect and/or receive a personal copy of certain information that may be used to make decisions about patient care. Usually, this includes medical and billing records, but does not include psychotherapy notes.
To inspect and/or receive a personal copy of this information you must submit a written request to the Health Information Management Department on a Nemours form that is available in the Health Information Management department. If you request a copy of the information, we will charge a fee for the costs of copying, mailing, or other supplies associated with the request. If you want certain information released to a third party, you must complete a form that is available in any Nemours Health Information Management Department.
Nemours may deny your request to inspect and/or provide you with a personal copy of this information in certain circumstances. If your request is denied, you may request that the denial be reviewed. Another licensed health care professional chosen by Nemours will review your request. Nemours will comply with the outcome of the review.
Right to Amend. If you feel that certain information is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask Nemours to amend the information. You have the right to request an amendment for as long as the information is kept by or for Nemours.
To request an amendment, you must complete a form that is available in any Nemours Health Information Management Department. You must provide a reason that supports your request.
Nemours may deny your request for an amendment if it is not in writing or does not include a reason to support the request. In addition, Nemours may deny your request if you ask us to amend information that:
- Was not created by Nemours, unless the person or entity that created the information is no longer available to make the amendment,
- Is not part of the information kept by or for Nemours,
- Is not part of the information which you would be permitted to inspect and copy, or
- Is accurate and compete
If your request to amend information is denied, Nemours will notify you of the denial in writing and explain your right to appeal the denial as well as the entire denial process.
If your request to amend information is approved, Nemours will amend the affected information and make a reasonable effort to notify people to whom the information was released of the amendment. In addition, all future releases of the information will include the amendment.
Right to an Accounting of Disclosures. Patients or Personal Representatives have the right to request an “accounting of disclosures” report. This report is a list of information disclosures made by Nemours excluding disclosures made:
- To carry out treatment, payment and health care operations;
- To the patient or their Personal Representative;
- To third parties as authorized by the patient;
- For the hospital’s directory;
- To persons involved in the individual’s care or other notification purposes;
- For national security or intelligence purposes; or
- To correctional institutions or law enforcement officials.
To request this report or an accounting of disclosures, you must complete a form, which is available in any Nemours Health Information Management Department. Your request must state a time period that may not be longer than six years and may not include dates before April 14, 2003. Your request should indicate in what form you want the list (for example, on paper, electronically). The first report you request within a 12-month period will be free. For additional reports, we may charge for the costs of providing the report. We will notify you of the cost involved and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are incurred.
Right to Request Restrictions. Patients have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the information Nemours uses or discloses about them for purposes of treatment, payment, or health care operations. Patients also have the right to request a limit on the information we disclose about them to someone who is involved in the patient’s care or payment for the patient’s care, such as a family member or friend. For example, a patient could ask that we not use or disclose information about a surgery that the patient had.
Nemours is not required to agree to the request. If Nemours does agree, we will comply with the request unless the information is needed to provide emergency treatment.
To request restrictions, you must complete a form, which is available in Health Information Management. In your request, you must tell 1) what information you want to limit, 2) whether you want to limit use, disclosure, or both, and 3) to whom you want the limits to apply, for example, disclosures to a parent whose parental rights have been terminated by Court action.
Right to Request Confidential Communications. You have the right to request that Nemours communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example, you can ask that we only contact you at work or by mail.
To request confidential communications, you should contact a Department Manager, who will assist you with your request. Nemours will not ask you the reason for the request. We will accommodate all reasonable requests. Your request must specify how or where you wish to be contacted.
Other Uses of Certain Information
Other uses and disclosures of certain information not covered by this notice or the laws that apply to Nemours will be made only with your written permission as supplied with the Authorization to Use or Disclose Protected Health Information form. If you authorize Nemours to use or disclose certain information about you or the patient for whom you are responsible, you may revoke that permission, in writing, at any time by completing a form at any Nemours Health Information Management Department. If you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose information about the affected patient for the reasons covered by your written authorization. We will be unable to take back any disclosures we have already made based on your authorization, and we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you.
Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice. You have the right to a paper copy of this notice. You may ask Nemours to give you a copy of this notice at any time. Even if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically, you are still entitled to a paper copy of this notice.
You may obtain an electronic copy of this notice at our Web site, http://www.nemours.org.
To obtain a paper copy of this notice, contact Nemours’ Corporate Privacy Officer at (904) 697-4287, or 1-800-SOS-KIDS or the business office at the Nemours facility closest to you.
Changes to This Notice
Nemours reserves the right to change this notice. We reserve the right to make the revised or changed notice effective for certain information we already have about you, as well as any information we receive in the future. We will post a copy of the current notice in all Nemours facilities, on all patient accessible websites, and copies will be available at all Nemours facilities. The effective date of the notice will be posted in the top right-hand corner of the first page of the notice.
Complaints
If you believe your privacy rights, or the privacy rights of the patient for whom you are responsible, have been violated, you may file a complaint with Nemours or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. To file a complaint, contact Nemours’ Privacy Officer, 10140 Centurion Parkway North, Jacksonville, FL 32256. All complaints must be submitted in writing.
You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.