Patient Privacy is of utmost importance at St. Joseph’s Health. HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects a patient’s right to privacy of health information. Please read below for important tips:

•Sharing information about a patient to colleagues, friends and family and any others is unethical and a violation of HIPAA and SJH policy.

• Speaking about a patient is never permitted in public places, such as the elevator or in the cafeteria.

•Printouts of information should be immediately placed in the patient’s chart or destroyed by shredding, or placed in the blue locked bins.

•File cabinets and chart racks must be kept in secure locations inaccessible to the public.

•All employees must take reasonable precautions to protect X-rays and other scan displays from public view.

•Conversations with patients need to take place in private. Reasonable efforts MUST be made to assure confidentiality.