MyChildrensMercy Patient Portal Mobile App Privacy Policy
The Children's Mercy Hospital (“CMH” or “we”) has created this Privacy Policy to demonstrate its commitment to privacy rights and protection of information that may be considered personally identifiable. This Privacy Policy describes the types of information CMH may collect from users (“you”) of the MyChildrensMercy patient portal mobile App (“App”), including the software, information, services, and/or data contained therein. This Privacy Policy supplements and is intended to be consistent with CMH’s Notice of Privacy Practices (“NPP”). The NPP governs CMH’s use of protected health information (“PHI”) by CMH. If there is any inconsistency between this Privacy Policy and the NPP as relates to PHI, the NPP shall govern. The terms “information” and “data” are used interchangeably in this Privacy Policy.
Acceptance of the Privacy Policy
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information that may be considered personally identifiable and what we do to help manage and protect this information. If you are under 18 years of age, please be sure to review this Privacy Policy with your parent or guardian. You must get your parent’s or guardian’s permission to use the App. And in some cases, your consent may be required for a parent/guardian to access or view information available through the App. By using the App, you and your parent/guardian consent to the collection and use of your information in the manner described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with these policies and practices, your choice is to not use this App.
Children's Privacy
CMH is committed to protecting the privacy of children. This App is offered to parents, legal guardians, and their proxies aged 18 and over, and patients and proxies aged 13-18 with parent/legal guardian consent. The App is not intended for or designed to attract children under the age of 13 (an individual under the age of 13 is referred to as “Child” in this Privacy Policy). While some sections of the App may be of interest to a Child, CMH does not request, seek or intentionally collect personal information from any Child. If you are a Child, do not provide any information on this App through any of its features. If CMH determines it has collected or received personally identifiable information from a Child without verification of parental consent, CMH will attempt to alert such Child's parent or guardian of the information and will provide instructions on how the parent or guardian can delete the information, if so desired. The App is designed with the intention of not asking for more information than is reasonably necessary to use the App and related functionality and features accessible through the App.
Information We Obtain About you and How We Collect It
CMH collects, or may collect, several types of information from and about users of our App, including:
• Information about your internet connection, IP address, cookies, the equipment you use to access the App, and usage details that is intended to be non-personally identifiable. This data is primarily used for technical troubleshooting and to improve our App and your experience using the App.
· Information that identifies or can be used to identify you or the child, such as: clinical information, including without limit lab and radiology results, medication lists, allergies, visit summaries, immunization history, clinic notes, educational materials, health summary information, procedures, and vital signs; name; video, digital, and audio images (“Images”); addresses (postal and email); telephone number; information about specific medical conditions; and, other unique identifiers (this information is referred to as “personally identifiable information”). This information may be part of your medical records and is displayed within the App, but not stored within the App. While information from your medical records may be accessible through the App, the App is not intended to provide you with access to all information that may be included in your medical records or any designated record set.
· Messages to your care team and appointment information.
· Any other legally permissible information.
To perform correctly, some features of this App may require the permissions below.
- Current GPS Location:
- This App requires access to location data to identify and display facilities and locations near you.
- Read and Write Files, Images, Video, and Audio:
- This App requires read and write access to the files, images, video, and audio of the device on which the App is located (“device”) for downloading or attaching to messages or visits.
- Access Camera:
- This App requires access to this device's camera for video visits and attaching images to messages or visits.
- Access Microphone:
- This App requires access to this device's microphone for video visits. The App does not record or store video or audio data from these visits.
- Access Wi-Fi and Network:
- This App requires access to this device's network status for troubleshooting and support.
CMH collects this information:
· Directly from you when you provide us with information about you or the child.
· Automatically as you use the App. Information collected automatically may include details about your use of the App (such as logs, other communication data, and usage patterns) and information about your technological equipment. This data is primarily used for technical troubleshooting and to improve our App and your experience using the App.
· From third parties, for example, our business partners.
Third Party Access to Your Information
Through the App, You will have access to the Cerner Patient Portal. Cerner may gather information related to your use of the Cerner Patient Portal. By using this App, You agree to the terms of any Cerner Privacy Policy and Terms of Use that accompany the Cerner Patient Portal.
Your phone manufacturer and/or cellular provider (or third parties to whom you give permission) may collect certain information about the App or your use of the App, and you may store information in the cloud or elsewhere that you generate from the App.
We have no responsibility or control over (i) how you use, store, transmit, process, access, collect, or share your information apart from the App or with third parties unaffiliated with us or (ii) how any third parties unaffiliated with us use store, transmit, process, access, or collect your information.
Information CMH Obtains Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies
As you navigate through and interact with the App, CMH may use automatic data collection technologies to obtain certain information about your technological equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, as described below.
· Details of your visits to the App, including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the App. This data is primarily used for technical troubleshooting and to improve our App and your experience using the App.
· Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address
· Any other legally permissible information.
The technologies CMH uses for this automatic data collection may include without limit:
· Cookies. A "cookie" is a small text file stored on the hard drive of your computer. The Website uses transient "cookies" during a site visit but does not gather information from a user's computer. CMH uses “cookies” to enhance Website usability and to store users’ preferences. The "cookie" is erased when the visit ends. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of the Website.
· Web Beacons. Pages of the Website may contain small electronic files known as “web beacons” (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit CMH, for example, to count users who have visited those pages and for other related Website statistics.
Third Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
· Some content or features available through the App are served by third parties. These third parties may use cookies (alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies) to collect information about you when you use the App. The information they collect about you may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. Subject to applicable law, they may use some or all of this information to provide you with interest-based advertising or other targeted content.
· CMH does not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used by third parties. If you have questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible technology provider directly.
How CMH Uses Your Information
CMH uses information collected through the App:
· To provide information to the child’s care providers to assist them in the child’s care.
· To better administer and troubleshoot the CMH information technology systems.
· In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
· For purposes with your consent.
· To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from CMH.
· To service, improve, and develop our current or future products and services.
· For any other legally permissible purpose.
How CMH Discloses Your Information
CMH may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual.
CMH may disclose personally identifiable information that you provide to CMH or that we collect as described in this policy:
· To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
· To contractors, service providers and other third parties who work on behalf of CMH, subject to applicable laws governing the privacy and security of personally identifiable information.
· To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government, licensing, accreditation or regulatory agency or entity.
· To enforce or Apply the App Terms of Use and other agreements.
· For any other purpose disclosed by CMH to you when you provide the information.
· As may be further stated in our NPP.
· For any other legally permissible purpose.
· If we, or any of our businesses, are sold or disposed of as a going concern, whether by merger, reorganization, sale of assets or otherwise, or in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership, any and all personally identifiable information, including your account information may be one of the assets sold or merged in connection with that transaction. Information about you may also need to be disclosed in connection with a commercial transaction where we or any one of our businesses are seeking financing, investment, support or funding. In such transactions, personal information will be subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy in effect when the information was obtained.
Your CMH Accounts and Passwords
When you use the Application, you are not anonymous to CMH. You are responsible for taking all reasonable steps to ensure that no unauthorized person has access to your CMH account(s) or password(s).
Data Security
CMH maintains safeguards intended to secure personally identifiable information about you. For example, all personally identifiable information obtained through the App is automatically encrypted using industry standard encryption technology. However, no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while CMH strives to use commercially acceptable means to protect personally identifiable information, CMH cannot guarantee its absolute security.
International Transfers of Personally Identifiable Information to U.S.
CMH is located in the United States. The App is provided for access and use only by persons located in the United States. You are not authorized to use the App outside the United States.
Your Rights Concerning Personally Identifiable Information
If you would like to access, amend, erase, export (i.e., data portability), or object to or restrict the processing of personally identifiable information, you may submit a request to privacyofficer@cmh.edu. CMH will promptly review all such requests in accordance with applicable laws.
Depending on where you live, you may have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority or other regulatory agency if you believe that we have violated any of the rights concerning personally identifiable information about you. CMH encourages you to first reach out to us at privacyofficer@cmh.edu so CMH has an opportunity to address your concerns directly before you do so.
Your California Privacy Rights
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (the “Code”) permits CMH Website users who are California residents to request and obtain from CMH information about their personally identifiable information, as defined in the Code, (if any) CMH disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to: privacyofficer@cmh.edu.
Retention of Personally Identifiable Information
CMH will retain personally identifiable information about you for as long as legally required and may retain such information for as long as legally permissible. Generally, information collected or accessible through the App may be destroyed as soon as is reasonably practicable following the expiration of the applicable retention period, taking into consideration that on certain electronic media and software platforms there is not currently the technical ability to “delete” or “destroy” a record. Attempts will be made to notify you prior to the destruction of your medical records only if and as required by law. Destruction methods will be used that are intended to ensure the records, whether paper or electronic, are rendered essentially unreadable, indecipherable, and otherwise not capable of being reconstructed. CMH may retain non-personally identifiable information indefinitely.
CMH maintains backup files as a protection against natural disasters, equipment failures, or other disruptions. Backup files may contain records with your personal information. Removing a record from our active files and databases does not remove that record from any backup systems. Such backup data will eventually be passively deleted as backup records are erased through the normal recycling of backup files.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
CMH reserves the right to change, modify or otherwise update this Privacy Policy at any time. Such changes or updates will be effective immediately upon notice thereof, which may be given by posting on this page, by electronic or conventional mail or by any other means by which you obtain notice of the changes or updates. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for periodically visiting this page to check for any changes to CMH’s privacy practices.
Contact Information
To ask questions or comment about this Privacy Policy and CMH’s privacy practices, contact CMH at:
The Children’s Mercy Hospital
Attn: Privacy Officer
2401 Gillham Road
Kansas City, MO 64108
or, via email at: privacyofficer@cmh.edu.