This section of our notice tells how we may use medical information about you. In all cases not covered by this notice, we will get a separate written permission from you before we use or share your medical information. You can later cancel your permission by notifying us in writing.

We will protect medical information as much as we can under the law. Sometimes state law gives more protection to medical information than federal law. Sometimes federal law gives more protection than state law. In each case, we will apply the laws that protect medical information the most.

Dignity Health is a large health system. We may use or share medical information about you (in electronic or paper form) with hospital personnel, including doctors, at any Dignity Health hospital or facility for treatment, payment and health care operations. Please contact the Facility Privacy Office (at the address at the bottom of the notice) for a list of all Dignity Health facilities.

EXAMPLES:

Treatment: We will use and share medical information about you for purposes of treatment. An example is sending medical information about you to your doctor or to a specialist as part of a referral.

Payment: We will use and share medical information about you so we can be paid for treating you. An example is giving information about you to your health plan or to Medicare.

Health care operations: We will use and share medical information about you for our health care operations. Examples are using information about you to improve the quality of care we give you, for disease management programs, patient satisfaction surveys, compiling medical information, de-identifying medical information and benchmarking.

Appointment reminders: We may contact you with appointment reminders.

Treatment options and health-related benefits and services: We may contact you about possible treatment options, health-related benefits or services that you might want.

Fund-raising activities: We may use limited information to contact you for fundraising. We may also share such information with our fundraising foundation.

Research: We may share medical information about you for research projects, such as studying the effectiveness of a treatment you received. We will usually get your written permission to use or share medical information for research. Under certain circumstances we may share medical information about you without your written permission. These research projects, however, must go through a special process that protects the confidentiality of your medical information.

Facility Directory: Unless you tell us otherwise, we may list your name, location in the hospital, your general condition (good, fair, etc.) and your religious affiliation in our directory. We will give this information (except your religious affiliation) to anyone who asks about you by name. Your religious affiliation will be given only to appropriate clergy members.

Public Health: We may disclose your health information as required or permitted by law to public health authorities or government agencies whose official activities include preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability. For example, we must report certain information about births, deaths, and various diseases to government agencies. We may use your health information in order to report to monitoring agencies any reactions to medications or problems with medical devices. We may also disclose, when requested, information about you to public health agencies that track outbreaks of contagious diseases or that are involved with preventing epidemics.

Required by Law: We are sometimes required by law to report certain information. For example, we must report abuse or neglect. We also must give information to your employer about work-related illness, injury or workplace-related medical surveillance. Another example is that we will share information about tumors with state tumor registries.

Public Safety: We may, and sometimes have to share medical information about you in order to prevent or lessen a serious threat to the health or safety of a particular person or the general public.

Health Oversight Activities: We may share medical information about you for health oversight activities, audits or inspections.

Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors: We may share medical information about deceased patients with coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors.

Organ and Tissue Donation: We may share medical information with organizations that handle organ, eye or tissue donation or transplantation.

Military, Veterans, National Security and Other Government Purposes: We may use or share medical information about you for national security purposes. We may share medical information about you with the military for military command purposes when you are a member of the armed force

Judicial Proceedings: We may use or share medical information about you in response to court orders or subpoenas only when we have followed procedures required by law.

Law Enforcement California: We may share medical information about you with police (or other law enforcement personnel) without your written permission:

• If the police bring you to the hospital and ask us to test your blood for alcohol or substance abuse
• If the police present a search warrant
• If the police present a court order
• To report abuse, neglect, or assaults as required or permitted by law
• To report certain threats to third parties
• If you are in police custody or are an inmate of a correctional institution and the information is necessary to provide you with health care, to protect your health and safety, the health and safety of others or for the safety and security of the correctional institution.

Family Members and Others Involved in Your Care: Unless you tell us otherwise, we may share medical information about you with friends, family members, or others you have named who help with your care. We may use or share medical information about you with disaster organizations so that your family can be notified of your location and condition in case of disaster or other emergency.

Sharing and Pooling your Information. We may take part in or make possible the electronic sharing or pooling of healthcare information. This helps doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers within a geographic area or community provide quality care to you. If you travel and need medical treatment it allows other doctors or hospitals to electronically contact us about you. All of this helps us manage your care when more than one doctor is involved. It also helps us to keep your health bills lower (avoid repeating lab tests). And finally it helps us to improve the overall quality of care provided to you and others.