Patient Privacy

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a federal law. It protects the release and distribution of health records.
Visit the federal government website about HIPAA. 

This notice from Legacy describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. 

• English: Notice of Privacy Practice
• Español (Spanish): Aviso de cómo se Ejerce su Privacidad

Please do not record or photograph anything in patient care or public areas of Legacy sites. Patient privacy is protected by federal law. 

At times we may need to designate a patient, or a patient may ask to be designated, as either a "No Information" or "No Location." These restrictions on patient information, the result of the federal privacy law, are as follows:

• ‘No Information’ restriction 
  Our staff will not tell anyone whether the patient is in the hospital. Please do not ask us to make exceptions. This designation offers the highest security and privacy for the patient. 
• ‘No Location’ restriction  
  If someone asks for a patient by name, we will say whether the patient is in the hospital and give the patient’s general condition. But we will not say where the patient is. 

Guidelines visiting for ‘No Information’ and ‘No Location’ patients 

• Only a spouse, parent or caregiver may visit a "No Location" or "No Information" patient. Exceptions can be made only by Legacy Security.
• For patient security, we ask the patient and the family to please not give out the patient’s room number or phone number to other family or friends.
• We will remove the "No Location" or "No Information" designations if the patient or family requests we do or under the direction of Legacy Security, as long as safety risks are over.  

Note: When police departments, fire departments or other agencies are involved, they sometimes release medical or location information without Legacy's knowledge. We cannot be responsible for patient information released by third parties.