Notice of Privacy Practices

PATIENT PRIVACY

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES as mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center is required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and to provide you with notice of its legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your health information. If you have questions about any part of this notice, or if you want more information about the privacy practices at Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center, please see the contact information at the end of this document.

HOW SAINT LUKE’S SHOAL CREEK SURGERY CENTER MAY USE OR DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center collects and protects the privacy of your health information. The law permits Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center to use of disclose your health information for the following purposes:

1. TREATMENT: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may use your health information to provide you with medical treatment or services. For example, information obtained from you by a front office personnel or nurse is necessary to determine what treatment you should receive.
2. PAYMENT: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may use and disclose health information about you for payment for treatment and services you receive. For example, your health information may be sent to a third party payer such as an insurance company or health plan in order for Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center to receive payment for services rendered.
3. HEALTHCARE OPERATIONS: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may use and disclose health information about you for operational purposes. For example, your health information may be disclosed to members of the medical staff, risk or quality improvement personnel, and other to evaluate the performance of our staff, assess the quality of care and outcomes in your case and similar cases, and to determine how to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the health care we provide.
4. INFORMATION PROVIDED TO YOU AND ON YOUR AUTHORIZATION: You may give Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center written authorization to use or disclose your health information.
5. NOTIFICATION AND COMMUNICATION WITH FAMILY: We may disclose your health information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for your care about your location, your general condition or in the event of your death. If you are able and available to agree or object, we will give you the opportunity to object prior to making this notification. If you are unable or unavailable to agree or object, our health professionals will use their best judgment in communication with your family and others.
6. REQUIRED BY LAW: As required by law, Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may use and disclose your health information. For example, Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may disclose health information for the following reasons; judicial and administrative proceedings, to a law enforcement official for purposes of identifying or locating a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person, complying with a court order or subpoena and other law enforcement purposes; to the Department of Health and Human Services to determine if we are in compliance with federal laws; or to appropriate persons in order to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the public or safety of a particular person or the general public.
7. PUBLIC HEALTH: As required by law, Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may use and disclose your health information to public health authorities for purposes related to: preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability; reporting child abuse or neglect; reporting domestic violence; reporting to the Food and Drug Administration problems with products and reactions to medications; to aid with disaster relief, and reporting disease or infection exposure.
8. HEALTH OVERSIGHT ACTIVITIES: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may disclose your health information to health agencies during the course of audits, investigations, inspections, licensure, and other proceedings.
9. DECEASED PERSON INFORMATION AND ORGAN DONATIONS: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may disclose your health information to coroners, medical examiners, funeral directors, or to organizations involved in procuring, banking or transplanting organs and tissues.
10. RESEARCH: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may disclose your health information to researchers conducting research that has been approved by an institutional Review Board.
11. WORKER’S COMPENSATION: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may disclose your health information as necessary to comply with worker’s compensation laws.
12. MARKETING: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may contact you to give you information about treatments or health –related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.
13. GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS: Specialized government functions such as protection of public officials or reporting to various branches of the armed services may require use or disclosure of your health information.
14. APPOINTMENTS: Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center may use you information to provide appointment reminders by telephone, email or postal service.
15. BUSINESS ASSOCIATES: We work with other businesses to help Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center operate successfully. We may disclose your health information to these business associates so that they can perform the tasks we hired them to do. Our business associates must guarantee us that they will respect the confidentiality of your personal health information.

WHEN SAINT LUKE’S SHOAL CREEK SURGERY CENTER MAY NOT USE OR DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

Except as described in the Notice of Privacy Practices, Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center will not use or disclose your health information without your written authorization.

YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

1. You have the right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of your health information. Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center is not required to agree to the restrictions that you request.
2. You have the right to receive your health information through a reasonable alternative means or at an alternative location. Request must be made in writing detailing the alternative methods chosen and could be applicable to fees.
3. You have the right to inspect and/or obtain a copy of your health information for a reasonable fee.
4. You have the right to request that Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center amend your health information that is incorrect or incomplete. Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center is not required to change your health information and will provide you information about the denial process.
5. You have the right to receive an accounting or disclosure of your health information made by Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center except that Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center does not have to account for the disclosure described in treatment, payment, healthcare operation, and government functions of section I of this notice. The first accounting of disclosers within a twelve-month period is free. Any additional accountings in that time frame are subject to a fee.
6. You have the right to revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken.
7. You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this Notice upon request.
8. You have the right to be notified in the event of a breach in Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center’s patient information.
9. You have the right to request that your health plan not be informed of your treatment at Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center if you pay in full and your insurance company is not billed.

How We Use Your Information

We strive to maintain your privacy, confidentiality and security at all times. Saint Luke’s uses the information you provide to us, including any Personally Identifiable Information to:

Present our Services and its contents to you

Provide you with information and services that you request from us, including Foundation-related fundraising activities

Personalize your experience and inform you about the services in which you have indicated an interest

Contact you and to respond to your questions

Carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection

Send you information about additional services or general wellness from us or on behalf of our affiliates

Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities in accordance with our Terms of Use

Comply with applicable law

Communicate changes to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

For purposes of human resources recruiting and processing your employment application

In other ways we may describe when you provide the information

For any other purpose with your consent

In addition, we may use, disclose or transfer your information to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale or other disposition of all or any portion of our business or assets.

These are the limited ways we interact with your information, including any Personally Identifiable Information, in connection with our mobile applications:

When you choose to add a profile photo to our mobile apps, you may select an existing photo on your device or take a new photo using the camera app on your device. If you select an existing photo on your device, we store a copy of your chosen photo in app-private storage on your device. If you use the camera app on your device to take a new photo, the photo you take is first saved to your camera app and then also saved to app-private storage on your device. If you remove the photo from your profile or delete our mobile apps, the copy of the photo is deleted from the app-private storage, but the photo saved to your camera app remains available in your camera app until you choose to delete it. If you already have a photo stored in your profile through your healthcare organization – we do not interact with that photo in any way.

With your permission, our Services may connect to health apps such as Apple HealthKit or Google Fit to either: (1) receive health information and to share that information with your healthcare providers; or (2) provide your Protected Health Information to the third party app designated by you.  We create encrypted identifiers to identify recipients of your Apple’s HealthKit or Google Fit data and store them on your device in app-private storage. If you choose to stop using Apple HealthKit or Google Fit or delete our mobile apps, the identifiers are deleted. We are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure or security policies or privacy practices of other organizations, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Apple, or Twitter or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider, or device manufacturer, including with respect to any Personally Identifiable Information or Protected Health Information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with the Services. We recommend you read the privacy policy of such organizations prior to sharing your information.

When you choose to view documents (such as letters or images) using our mobile apps, to make the files viewable for you we temporarily store copies on your device in app-private storage. The temporary copies are deleted when you close your session on our mobile apps.

When you choose to include a photo or video in a message you send to us using our mobile apps, you may select an existing photo or video from your device or take a new photo or video using the camera app on your device. If you use the camera app on your device to take a new photo or video, it will be saved to your camera app. Any photo or video saved to your camera app remains available in your camera app until you choose to delete it.

When you join a telehealth visit with your provider, we will ask for permission to access your device’s video and audio functionality to make the telehealth visit possible. We do not record or store video of audio data from these visits.

If you choose to enable the automatic appointment arrival functionality, we temporarily store identifiers and times for your upcoming appointments in app-private storage to detect when you arrive for an upcoming appointment. If you choose to stop using our mobile apps or you disable automatic appointment arrival, the identifiers are deleted.

You may choose to allow our mobile apps to interact with your location data for purposes of location-based check in for in-person appointments, or to find healthcare providers near you. We do not store your location data.

You may choose to allow our mobile apps to interact with your Bluetooth data for purposes of notifying front desk staff electronically when you arrive for an appointment, We do not store your Bluetooth data.

While you use our apps, we collect non-identifying information so we can provide customer service to you or your healthcare organization and understand how people use our mobile apps so we can improve our products. This information includes the time you began using the app, the healthcare organization you interacted with, any error messages or codes, the model of device used and its operating system, and the version of our mobile app used. If you use Android devices, we also collect your connection type (cellular or WiFi) during an error.

While you use our apps, if you choose to call a phone number displayed within the app, we will ask for permission to access your device’s phone to place a call to the phone number. We do not store your call history or data about the call.

You may contact us through the methods listed under the “Contacting Us” section below. If you contact us, we may keep a record of the communication. You can decide how much information you want to share with us in those cases.

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center reserves the right to amend this Notice of Privacy Practices at any time in the future. Until such amendment is made, Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center is required by law to comply with this notice. A paper copy of this notice is available if you request a copy.

COMPLAINTS

If you believe that your privacy rights have been violated or if you have complaints about this Notice of Privacy Practices, contact Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center’s Administrator at:

8860 NE 82nd Terrace
|Ste. 100
Kansas City, MO 64158
(816) 437-8101

If you are not satisfied with the manner in which Saint Luke’s Shoal Creek Surgery Center handles a complaint, you may submit a formal written complaint to the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights.

You will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint.