Privacy Notice
IMPORTANT: This Notice describes how medical information about
you may be used and how you can get access to this information.
Please review it carefully.
The Grandville Fire Department is required by law to maintain the
privacy of your confidential health information, known as Protected
Health Information ("PHI"), and to provide you with a notice of your
legal rights and our legal duties and privacy practices with respect
to your PHI. Grandville Fire Department is also required to abide by
the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect.
We respect your privacy, and treat all health care information
about our patients with care under strict policies of
confidentiality that all of our staff are committed to following at
all times.
Please read this Notice. If you have any questions about it,
please contact Michael May, our Chief and Privacy Officer
at (616) 530-6211.
Purpose of this Notice
The Grandville Fire Department is required by law to maintain the
privacy of certain confidential health care information, known as
Protected Health Information or PHI, and to provide you with a
notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to
your PHI. This Notice describes your legal rights, advises you of
our privacy practices, and lets you know how the Grandville Fire
Department may use and disclose PHI about you.
 Uses
and Disclosures of PHI
The Grandville Fire Department may use PHI for the purpose of
treatment and health care operations, in most cases without your
written permission. Examples of our use of your PHI:
For Treatment. This includes verbal and
written information that we obtain about you and your medical
condition and use for treatment provided by us and other medical
personnel, (including other health care professionals who give
orders to allow us to provide treatment to you). It also includes
information we give to other health care personnel to whom we
transfer your care and treatment, and includes transfer of PHI via
radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center as well as
providing the hospital, transporting EMS agency and Medical Control
Authority a copy of the written record we create in the course of
providing you with treatment.
For Health Care Operations.
This includes quality assurance activities, licensing and
training programs to ensure that our EMS personnel meet our
standards of care and follow established protocols and procedures,
obtaining legal and financial services, conducting business
planning, processing grievances and complaints, and creating reports
that do not individually identify you for data collection purposes.
Use and Disclosure of PHI Without Your
Authorization: The Grandville Fire
Department is permitted to use PHI without your written
authorization, or opportunity to object in certain situations,
including:
- For the Grandville Fire Department's use in treating you, or
in other health care operations.
- For the treatment activities of another health care provider.
- To another health care provider or entity for the payment
activities of the provider or entity that receives the information
as long as the provider or entity receiving the information has or
had a relationship with you and the PHI pertains to that
relationship.
- For health care fraud and abuse detection or for activities
related to compliance with the law.
- To a relative, friend or other individual involved in your
care if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you
an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise
an objection. We may also disclose health information to relative,
friend or other individual involved in your care if we infer from
the circumstances that you would not object. For example, we may
assume you agree to our disclosure of your PHI to your spouse when
your spouse has called an ambulance for you. In situations where
you are not capable of objecting, (because you are not present or
due to your incapacity or medical emergency), we may, in our
professional judgment, determine that a disclosure to a relative
or friend is in your best interest. In that situation, we will
disclose only health information relevant to that person's
involvement in your care. For example, we may inform the person
who accompanies you that you have certain symptoms and we may give
that person an update on your vital signs and treatment that is
being administered by our personnel or the ambulance crew.
- To a government authority in certain situations such as
reporting a birth, death or disease as required by law, as part of
a public health investigation, to report child or adult abuse or
neglect or domestic violence, to report adverse events such as
products defects, or to notify a person about exposure to a
possible communicable disease as required by law.
- For health oversight activities including audits or government
investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other
administrative or judicial actions undertaken by the government
(or their contractors) by law to oversee the health care system.
- For judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a
court of administrative order, or in some cases in response to a
subpoena or other legal process.
- For law enforcement activities in limited situations, such as
when there is a warrant for the request, or when the information
is needed to locate a suspect or stop a crime.
- For military, national defense and security and other special
government functions.
- To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person
or the public at large.
- For workers' compensation purposes, and in compliance with
workers' compensation laws.
- To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for
identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or
carrying on their duties as authorized by law.
- If you are an organ donor, we may release health information
to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or
tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary
to facilitate organ donation and transplantation.
- For research projects, but this will be subject to strict
oversight and approvals and health information will be released
only when there is a minimal risk to your privacy and adequate
safeguards are in place in accordance with the law.
- We may use or disclose health information about you that does
not personally identify you or reveal who you are.
Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those
listed above, will only be made with your written authorization. The
authorization must specifically identify the information we seek to
use or disclose, as well as when and how we seek to use or disclose
it. You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing,
except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed medical
information in reliance on that authorization.
Patient Rights: As a patient, you have a number of rights
with respect to the protection of your PHI, including:
The right to access, copy or inspect your PHI. You may
come to our offices and inspect and copy most of the medical
information about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you
with access to this information within 30 days of your request. We
may also charge you a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical
information that you have the right to access. In limited
circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information,
and you may appeal certain types of denials. All requests to access
your PHI must be made in writing to the Privacy Officer listed at
the end of this Notice. We will provide a written response if we
deny you access and let you know your appeal rights.
The right to amend your PHI. You have the right to ask us
to amend written medical information that we maintain. We will
generally amend your information within 60 days of your request and
will notify you when we have amended the information. We are
permitted by law to deny your request to amend your medical
information in certain circumstances, like when we believe the
information you have asked us to amend is correct. To amend your
medical information, contact the Privacy Officer listed at the end
of this Notice in writing.
The right to request an accounting of our use and disclosure
of your PHI. You may request an accounting from us of certain
disclosures of your medical information that we have made in the
last six years prior to the date of your request, but not prior to
April 14, 2003. We are not required to give you an accounting of any
disclosure that is permitted by this Notice or for which you gave a
written authorization. To request an accounting of disclosures,
contact the Privacy Officer listed at the end of this Notice in
writing.
The right to request that we restrict the uses and disclosures
of your PHI. You have the right to request that we restrict how
we use and disclose your medical information. If you request a
restriction and the information you asked us to restrict is needed
to provide emergency treatment, then we may use or disclose the PHI
to a health care provider to provide you with emergency treatment.
Grandville Fire is not required to agree to any restrictions you
request, but any restrictions agreed to by Grandville Fire in
writing are binding on Grandville Fire. All requests for
restrictions must be made in writing to the Privacy Officer listed
at the end of this notice.
Internet Posting and the Right to Obtain Copy of Paper Notice
on Request. We will prominently post a copy of the Notice and
make it available electronically on our web site. You may always
request a paper copy of this Notice.
Revisions to the Notice. Grandville Fire reserves the
right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the
changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all
protected health information that we maintain. Any material changes
to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted
on our web site. You can get a copy of the latest version of this
Notice by contacting the Privacy Officer identified below.
Your Legal Rights and Complaints. You also have the right
to complain to us or the Secretary of the United States Department
of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have
been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for
filing a complaint with us or the government. Should you have any
questions, comments or complaints you may direct all inquires to the
Privacy Officer listed at the end of this Notice.
If you have any questions or if you wish to file a
complaint or exercise any rights listed in this Notice, please
contact:
Chief Michael W. May
Grandville Fire Department
3215 Wilson SW
Grandville, MI 49418
Effective date of this Notice: April 14, 2003
Contact the webmaster by clicking here.
Comments regarding website technical problems can be sent here.
An online community since 2000.
City of Grandville
3195 Wilson Avenue SW
Grandville, MI 49418
(616) 531-3030
This page last modified
07/01/11 .
All information © 2004 Grandville, Michigan
Site Use Policy
Site Design/
Development by
 |
|
|
Fire
