Your Privacy

Meriter Health Services is committed to providing you with quality health care and to maintaining a relationship with you that is built on trust. Meriter Health Services has a strong commitment to the privacy of our patients and visitors to our Web sites, and does not share any personal information collected through this site with third parties without the person's expressed permission.

The Content on Meriter.com

The information in this Web site is provided by Meriter Health Services. Select information in the "Health Library" portion of the site is supplied by our partners, StayWell and Byrne Healthcare. Users are encouraged to use the information provided through this site for educational purposes only, and not use it as a substitute for professional medical care. While we try to keep the information as accurate as possible, we disclaim any implied warranty or representation about its accuracy or completeness, or appropriateness for a particular purpose. You assume full responsibility for using the information in this site, and you understand and agree that Meriter Health Services is neither responsible nor liable for any claim, loss or damage resulting from its use.
                                      
The mention of specific products, sites and services on this site does not constitute or imply a recommendation or endorsement by Meriter Health Services, unless it is explicitly stated. Please note that Meriter's products and services are often revised, and therefore the information in this site will be revised as well.

Collecting and Using Personal Information

Meriter Health Services only collects personally identifiable information from site visitors when those visitors voluntarily provide it. This information is collected when site visitors use the forms or e-mail links in the site, such as:

• The patient e-mail forms
• Sign-up forms for our e-mail newsletters
• Heart Risk Assessment
• The Meriter E-Card form
• The DR4U physician referral form
• Online surveys
• E-mail links in the department pages

Our online forms only ask for information necessary to serve those visitors - we gather this information to serve the visitors' needs, and reply to their requests and concerns. E-mails and forms are shared with the Meriter staff members who are best able to address the questions or concerns. Once we have responded to your communication, we will archive it for tracking purposes and keep it confidential. If a person signs up for one of our e-mail newsletters, we will only use his or her e-mail address to send this newsletter. Registrants are able to opt-out at any time. Information entered into the interactive health risk assessment, health polls and quizzes are collected in aggregate, so we can learn which topics would be most useful to our visitors. The data is not connected to individual user names.

Please note that these statements only apply to the information you provide to Meriter through this Web site. It does not apply to information that you provide to Meriter by any other method. Any information that is provided as part of normal patient-provider communications is governed by applicable patient confidentiality law.

Providing Security for Your Registration, Payment and Donation Information

Meriter Hospital complies with the requirements of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and wants your personal information to remain as secure as possible. Meriter Hospital provides online forms which request confidential health and personal information. These forms are located on the secure portion of our site. Accordingly, we prevent unauthorized access by a secure firewall and use of security infrastructure to protect the integrity and privacy of the personal information you provide to us. As an additional security measure, your personal information is also encrypted during transmission by Secure Socket Layer 128-bit encryption software.

• Hospital Pre-Registration - We provide online registration for patients planning a hospital stay.
• Meriter Classes & Events - We provide online registration for most of Meriter's classes and events.
• Online Bill Pay - Customers can pay healthcare bills online.
• Online Gift Shop - Community members can buy gifts for Meriter Hospital patients and staff members through our Online Gift Shop.
• Meriter Foundation Donations - Donations can be made online through the Meriter Foundation section.
• DR4U Requests - This form allows you to request a physician referral.

Security of E-mail and Forms

Our Web site adheres to the following principle: all communications received through this site's forms and e-mail links are to be treated as confidential. Except for a few exceptions (which can be recognized by the secure lock shown in your browser window and are mentioned above), the forms and e-mail links in our site do not provide a means for completely secure and private communications between us. Your e-mails and form submissions - like most non-encrypted Internet e-mail communications - may be accessed and viewed without your knowledge or permission while in transit to us. If you wish to keep the information you are sending private and consider it confidential, please do not use our e-mail links or forms. Instead, you may contact our main line at (608) 417-6000, which will forward your call to the appropriate department.