We are
committed to protecting the confidentiality of your medical
information, and are required by law to do so. This notice describes how we
may use your medical information within Miles and how we may
disclose it to others outside Miles. This notice also describes
the rights you have concerning your own medical information. Please review it carefully
and let us know if you have questions.
HOW WILL WE USE AND
DISCLOSE YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION?
Treatment: We may use
your medical information to provide you with medical services and
supplies. We may also
disclose your medical information to others who need that
information to treat you, such as doctors, physician assistants,
nurses, medical and nursing students, technicians, therapists,
emergency service and medical transportation providers, medical
equipment providers, and others involved in your care. For example, we will allow
your physician to have access to your medical record to assist in
your treatment at Miles and for follow-up care.
We also
may use and disclose your medical information to contact you to
remind you of an upcoming appointment, to inform you about possible
treatment options or alternatives, or to tell you about
health-related services available to you.
We participate in the
MaineHealth family, which is a regional arrangement of health care
organizations who have agreed to work with each other to make
available health information that may be relevant to your care. For example, if you are
admitted to a hospital on an emergency basis and cannot provide
important information about your health condition, this regional
arrangement will help those who need to treat you at the hospital to
see your health information held by another participating
provider. When it is
needed, ready access to your health information means better care
for you.
Patient
Directory:
If you are
a patient in the hospital or a resident at Coves Edge or Chase
Point, Miles maintains a patient directory to assist family
members and other visitors in locating you. This directory includes your
name, room number, your general condition (such as fair, stable, or
critical), and your religious affiliation (if any). We will disclose this
information to someone who asks for you by name, although we will
disclose your religious affiliation only to clergy members. If you do not want to be
included in Miles patient directory, please indicate this on your
Consent, Release and Assignment Form or notify the Privacy Officer
in writing. If you choose not to be included in the directory, we
will not be able to direct visitors, flowers or other delivered
items and phone calls to you.
Family
Members and Others Involved in Your Care: We may disclose your medical
information to a family member or friend who is involved in your
medical care, or to someone who helps to pay for your care. We also may disclose your
medical information to disaster relief organizations to help locate
a family member or friend in a disaster. If you do not want Miles to
disclose your medical information to family members or others who
will visit you, please indicate this on your Consent, Release and
Assignment Form or notify the Privacy Officer in
writing.
Payment:
We may use and disclose your
medical information to get paid for the medical services and
supplies we provide to you.
For example, your health plan or health insurance company may
ask to see parts of your medical record before they will pay us for
your treatment.
Hospital
Operations: We may use and disclose your
medical information if it is necessary to improve the quality of
care we provide to patients or to run Miles. We may use your medical
information to conduct quality improvement activities, to obtain
audit, accounting or legal services, or to conduct business
management and planning. For example, we may look at your medical
record to evaluate whether our personnel, your doctors, or other
health care professionals did a good job.
Research: We may use or disclose your
medical information for research projects, such as studying the
effectiveness of a treatment you received provided that these
research projects have gone through a special process that protects
the confidentiality of your medical information.
Required
by Law:
Federal,
state, or local laws sometimes require us to disclose patients
medical information. For instance, we are required to report child
abuse or neglect and must provide certain information to law
enforcement officials in domestic violence cases. We also are required to give
information to the State Workers Compensation Program for
work-related injuries.
Public
Health:
We also
may report certain medical information for public health
purposes. We also may
need to report patient problems with medications or medical products
to the Food and Drug Administration, or may notify patients of
recalls of products they are using.
Public
Safety: We may disclose medical
information for public safety purposes in limited
circumstances. We may
disclose medical information to law enforcement officials in
response to a search warrant, court order or subpoena. We also may disclose medical
information to assist law enforcement officials in identifying or
locating a person, to prosecute a crime of violence, to report
deaths that may have resulted from criminal conduct, and to report
criminal conduct at Miles.
We also may disclose your medical information to law
enforcement officials and others to prevent a serious threat to
health or safety.
Health
Oversight Activities: We may disclose medical
information to a government agency that oversees Miles or its
personnel, such as the Maine Department of Human Services,
the federal agencies that oversee Medicare, the Board of Medical
Examiners or the Board of Nursing. These agencies need medical
information to monitor Miles compliance with state and federal
laws.
Coroners,
Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors: We may
disclose medical information concerning deceased patients to
coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors to assist them in
carrying out their duties.
Organ and
Tissue Donation:
We may
disclose medical information to organizations that handle organ, eye
or tissue donation or transplantation.
Military,
Veterans, National Security and Other Government
Purposes: If you are a member of the
armed forces, we may release your medical information as required by
military command authorities or to the Department of Veterans
Affairs. Miles may also
disclose medical information to federal officials for intelligence
and national security purposes, or for presidential Protective
Services.
Judicial
Proceedings: Miles may disclose medical
information if Miles is ordered to do so by a court or if Miles
receives a subpoena or a search warrant that meets legal
requirements.
Fundraising:
To the
extent that the law allows, we may use certain information (name,
address, telephone number, date of service, age and gender) to
contact you in the future to raise money for Miles. The money raised
will be used to expand and improve the services and programs that we
provide the community. If you do not wish to be contacted for our
fundraising efforts, please notify the Development Office at
207-563-4570
Information
with Additional Protection: Certain types of medical
information have additional protection under state or federal
law. For instance,
medical information about HIV/AIDS and mental health has more
protection in Maine.
For those types of information, Miles is required to get your
permission before disclosing that information to others in many
circumstances.
Rights
Related to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Records: Federal law protects the confidentiality of
alcohol and drug abuse patient records maintained by Miles. Miles
may not tell anyone not a part of Miles or release any information
identifying a patient as an alcohol and drug abuser, unless:
1) The patient authorizes this
in writing;
2) The release is
allowed by a court order; or
3) The
release is made to Miles staff involved in a medical emergency or to
qualified personal for research, audit or program
evaluation.
Other Uses
and Disclosures: If Miles wishes to use or
disclose your medical information for a purpose that is not
discussed in this Notice, Miles will seek your written
permission. If you give
your permission to Miles, you may take back that permission any
time, unless we have already relied on your permission to use or
disclose the information. If you ever would like
to revoke your permission, please notify Health Information Services
in writing.
Ambulatory
Electronic Medical Records. Your
medical records also will be shared with area physician practices
participating in the MaineHealth Ambulatory Electronic Medical
Record Program to ensure continuity of care, allow access to
information about your healthcare in remote areas, promote quality
of care improvement by way of greater access to data, reduction in
costs achieved either through efficiency and productivity gains or
avoidance of redundant provider services, and improved patient
experience with the system.
HealthInfoNet
(HIN). We
participate in a regional arrangement of health care organizations
who have agreed to work with each other to make available electronic
health information that may be relevant to your care. For example,
if you are admitted to a hospital on an emergency basis and cannot
provide important information about your health condition, this
regional arrangement will help those who need to treat you at the
hospital to see your health information held by another
participating provider. When it is needed, ready access to your
health information means better care for you. We also participate in
a state-wide arrangement of health care organizations who have
agreed to work with each other to make available electronic health
information that may be relevant to your care. For example, if you
are admitted to a non-MaineHealth-affiliated hospital on an
emergency basis and cannot provide information about your health
condition, this state-wide arrangement will help those who need to
treat you at the hospital to see your health information held by a
MaineHealth-affiliated hospital. When it is needed, ready access to
your health information means better care for you. You may chose to
not make your protected health information available to this
state-wide arrangement by completing the paperwork provided to you
during the registration process and sending it to Health Info
Network (HIN) at the designated address. You do not need to do
anything to participate. Your health care provider will send the
overview of your health information to HIN. If you choose not to
participate you need to fill out a form that lets HIN know that you
do not want to participate. If you choose not to participate, HIN
will delete all health information about you that it has in its
system at that time. If you chose not to participate, HIN will
continue to maintain basic demographic information about you so that
it can honor your choice not to participate. You can change your
mind about participating in HINs system at any time by filling out a
form that your health care provider has, calling HIN toll free
(#866-592-4352) or by going to the website www.hinfonet.org and
making your wishes known.
The risks
of participating in the HIN include the possibility that an
unauthorized person might access HINs record. It is also possible
that inaccurate information might be included accidentally in HINs
record which could lead to mistakes about diagnoses and medication.
Another risk is the potential reference to a medical condition you
consider sensitive (such as references to sexually transmitted
diseases, mental health issues, pregnancy, HIV status, chronic
conditions, alcohol or drug conditions, or another condition you
consider sensitive.
WHAT ARE YOUR
RIGHTS?
Right to
Request Your Medical Information: You have the right to look
at your own medical information and to get a copy of that
information. (The law
requires us to keep the original record.) This includes your medical
record, your billing record, and other records we use to make
decisions about your care. To request your medical information,
write to Health Information Services. If you request a copy of your
information, we will charge you for our costs to copy the
information. We will
tell you in advance what this copying will cost. You can look at your record
at no cost.
Right to
Submit Corrections or Clarifications of Medical Information: If you
examine your medical information and believe that some of the
information is wrong or incomplete, you may submit a
correction/clarification.
To submit a correction or clarification, write to Health
Information Services.
Right to
Get a List of Certain Disclosures of Your Medical
Information: You have the right to
request a list of many of the disclosures we make of your medical
information. If you
would like to receive such a list, write to Health Information
Services. We will
provide the first list to you free, but we may charge you for any
additional lists you request during the same year. We will tell you in advance
what this list will cost.
Right to
Request Restrictions on How Miles Will Use or Disclose Your Medical
Information for Treatment, Payment, or Health Care
Operations: You have the right to
request us not to make uses or disclosures of your medical
information to treat you, to seek payment for care, or to operate
Miles. We are not
required to agree to your request, but if we do agree, we will
comply with that agreement except in an emergency. If you want to request a
restriction, submit your request in writing to Health Information
Services and describe your request in detail.
Right to
Request Confidential Communications: You
have the right to ask us to
communicate with you in a way that you feel is more confidential.
For example,
you can ask us not to call your home, but to communicate only
by mail. To do this,
write to Health Information Services. You can also ask to speak
with your health care providers in private outside the presence
of other patients. Just ask them!
Right to a
Paper Copy: If you
have received this notice electronically, you have the right to a paper
copy at any time. You may print the pages of the notice from our Web site,
at www.mileshealthcare.org or you may obtain a paper copy of the notice from
the Privacy Officer.
CHANGES TO THIS
NOTICE
From time
to time, we may change our practices concerning how we use or
disclose patient medical information, or how we will implement
patient rights concerning their information. We reserve the right to
change this Notice and to make the provisions in our new Notice
effective for all medical information we maintain. If we change these
practices, we will publish a revised Notice of Privacy
Practices. You can get
a copy of our current notice of Privacy Practices at any time from
our website at www.mileshealthcare.org or by contacting the Privacy
Office.
WHICH HEALTH CARE
PROVIDERS ARE COVERED BY THIS NOTICE?
This
Notice of Privacy Practices applies to Miles which includes Miles
Memorial Hospital, Miles Medical Group, Miles Home Health &
Hospice, Lincoln County Administrative Services, Coves Edge and
Chase Point, and all credentialed physicians, allied health
practitioners, nurses, therapists, technicians and other individuals
that work at these organizations (we or us).The Notice also
applies to other health care providers that come to Miles to care
for patients who are not employed by Miles, unless these other
health care providers give you their own Notice that describes how
they will protect your medical information. Miles may share your
medical information with these providers for their treatment
purposes, payment and health care operations. This arrangement is solely
for sharing information and not for any other
purpose.
DO YOU HAVE CONCERNS
OR COMPLAINTS?
Please
tell us about any problems or concerns you have with your privacy
rights or how Miles uses or discloses your medical information. If you have a concern,
please contact the Privacy Office. If for some reason Miles
cannot resolve your concern, you may also file a complaint with the
federal government. We
will not penalize you or retaliate against you in any way for filing
a complaint.
DO YOU HAVE
QUESTIONS?
Miles is
required by law to give you this Notice and to follow the terms of
the Notice that is currently in effect. If you have any questions
about this Notice, or have further questions about how Miles may use
and disclose your medical information, please contact the Privacy
Office.
Privacy
Office:
Privacy
Officer
Miles Memorial
Hospital
35 Miles
Road
Damariscotta. ME
04543
Telephone
Number: (207) 563-4588
Health Information
Services Department:
Miles Memorial
Hospital
Health
Information Services Office
35
Miles Road
Damariscotta. ME
04543
(207)
563-4505
Coves
Edge
Medical Records
Clerk
Damariscotta, ME 04543
(207) 563-4619
Miles Medical
Group
(please
phone individual physician offices)
Effective date: 2/1/09
