Digital Privacy Policy

This website should NOT be used in urgent or emergency medical situations. If you have a medical emergency, call 911 immediately.

Effective Date: September 14, 2022

This Digital Privacy Policy applies to the website or any mobile application that may be linked to this Digital Privacy Policy (a “Service” or the “Services”) that are provided by Deborah Heart and Lung Center (“we,” “us,” or “our”) and/or Deborah Specialty Physicians.

Deborah Specialty Physicians is a private physician practice. Deborah Heart and Lung Center manages the Deborah Specialty Physicians’ website. The name “Deborah” is a registered trademark of Deborah Heart and Lung Center and is used under license granted by Deborah. All Rights Reserved.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This Digital Privacy Policy applies to personally identifiable information that you provide to us when using the Services. In general, this personally identifiable information includes information such as your name, address and contact information. It also includes Protected Health Information and Web Browsing Data as described below.

Protected Health Information

Some information collected when you are using the Services may be considered “Protected Health Information” (or “PHI”), which is also subject to the Deborah Heart and Lung Center Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Notice of Privacy Practices and/or the Deborah Specialty Physicians’ Notice of Privacy Practices (the “HIPAA Notices”), such as if you use the “Request an Appointment” feature and schedule an appointment with us. The HIPAA Notices are separate documents that describe how Deborah Heart and Lung Center and Deborah Specialty Physicians can use and share your PHI and also describe your rights with respect to your PHI. This Digital Privacy Policy supplements the HIPAA Notices with respect to PHI. If there is ever any conflict between this Digital Privacy Policy and the HIPAA Notices with respect to PHI, the HIPAA Notices will apply. The HIPAA Notices do not apply to information that is not PHI, such as Web Browsing Data, described below.

Web Browsing Data

We may collect other personally identifiable information when you visit our website and use the Services. This includes but is not limited to device and advertising identifiers, browser type, operating system, Internet service provider, web page information, and other similar web browsing data that may identify you (“Web Browsing Data”). We may do so in the form of cookies, pixels, geolocation data, tags, and scripts, and similar technologies. Web Browsing Data is generally not PHI and in such case, is only subject to this Digital Privacy Policy and not the HIPAA Notices.

I. Collection of Information

We may collect the following kinds of information when you use a Service:

Information you provide directly to us.

For certain Services or activities, such as when you register with a Service, use the “Request an Appointment” feature, use the “Contact Us” feature, utilize one of our general health Quizzes or Risk Assessments, subscribe to our alerts, or contact us directly, we may collect some or all of the following types of information. This information is generally considered personally identifiable information and not PHI.

Contact information, such as your full name, email address, mobile phone number, and address;
Username and password, for example, if you are registered for a mobile application;
Personal health information, including information about your diagnosis, previous treatments, general health, and health insurance, for example, if you are requesting an appointment, or information you provide when answering one of our online general health Quizzes or Risk Assessments.
Doctor reviews that you may choose to submit; and
Any other information you provide to us, such as questions you may submit about the Services.

You should not use the “Contact Us” forms, health Quizzes or Risk Assessments for urgent or emergency questions or questions of a medical nature. Using these does not constitute or create a doctor-patient relationship between us and any recipient. You should not send us any confidential or sensitive information for physicians in the “Contact Us” forms. Whatever you disclose to us in that manner will not be privileged or confidential nor is any such information PHI. Quizzes and Risk Assessments will only screen for certain risk factors and do not constitute a physical exam. For the diagnosis of a medical problem, you must see a physician for a complete medical exam.

Information we collect automatically.

We may collect certain information automatically when you use the Services, such as your computer’s Internet protocol (IP) address, device and advertising identifiers, browser type, operating system, Internet service provider, pages that you visit before and after using the Services, the date and time of your use of the Service, information about the links you click and pages you view within the Services, and other standard server log information. We may also collect certain location information when you use the Services, such as your mobile device’s GPS signal, or information about nearby WiFi access points and cell towers. This is referred to as “Web Browsing Data”.

We may use cookies, pixel tags, Local Shared Objects, and similar technologies to automatically collect Web Browsing Data. Cookies are small bits of information that are stored by your computer’s web browser. Pixel tags are very small images or small pieces of data embedded in images, also known as “web beacons” or “clear GIFs,” that can recognize cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, a description of the page where the pixel tag is placed, and similar information from your computer or device.

We may also collect technical data to address and fix technical problems and improve the Services. Your device or browser settings may permit you to control the collection of this technical data. By using the Services, you are consenting to us or any party acting on our behalf collecting this technical data.

Information from Third-Party Services.

If you access the Services from an advertisement on a third-party website, application, or other service (a “Third-Party Service”) we may receive information from the owner of the Third-Party Service related to you or that advertisement. We use third-party advertising companies to serve advertisements regarding goods and services that may be of interest to you when you access and use the Services and other third party websites or online services.

You may receive advertisements based on your Web Browsing Data relating to your access to and use of the Services and other third party websites or online services on any of your devices, as well as advertisements based on information received from third parties. These companies place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser (including through the use of pixel tags). They also use these technologies, along with Web Browsing Data or other information they collect about your online use, to recognize you across the devices you use, such as a mobile phone and a laptop. If you would like more information about this practice, and to learn how to opt out of it in desktop and mobile browsers on the particular device on which you are accessing this website Digital Privacy Policy, please visit http://optout.aboutads.info and http://optout.networkadvertising.org, which is a third party consumer educational resource website designated to educate and assist consumers with their digital privacy. You may also download third party applications designated to help you opt out in mobile apps.

These third parties do not receive from us any personally identifiable information such as your name or other information which you may include in “Contact Us” or “Request an Appointment” forms or which you provide in our online Quizzes and Risk Assessments, nor do they receive from us any PHI.

Information we obtain from other sources.

We may receive information about you from other sources, including through third-party services and organizations. We may combine our first-party data, such as your email address or name, with third-party data from other sources and use this to contact you (e.g. through direct mail). For example, if you access third-party services, such as Facebook, Google, or Twitter, through the Services or to share information about your experience on the Services with others by writing a review, we may collect information from these third-party services which they collect from you when you use their services.

II. Use of Information

We may use the information we collect online to:

Provide and improve the Services;
Contact you;
Fulfill your requests for our or Deborah Specialty Physician products, services, and information;
Send you information about additional clinical services or general wellness from us or on behalf of Deborah Specialty Physicians or our affiliates;
Analyze the use of the Services and user data to understand and improve the Services;
Conduct market research using your information;
Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities and otherwise in accordance with our Terms of Use and
For any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent.

III. Sharing of Information

We are committed to maintaining your trust, and we want you to understand when and with whom we may share the information we collect.

Authorized third-party vendors and service providers. We may share your information with third-party vendors and service providers that help us or Deborah Specialty Physicians with specialized services, including billing, payment processing, customer service, email deployment, business analytics, marketing (including but not limited to advertising, attribution, deep-linking, direct mail, mobile marketing, optimization and retargeting) advertising, performance monitoring, hosting, and data processing. These third-party vendors and service providers may not use your information for purposes other than those related to services they are providing to us.
Corporate affiliates. We may share certain of your information with Deborah Hospital Foundation, our fund-raising affiliate.
Legal purposes. We may disclose information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, law enforcement requests, legal claims or government inquiries, and to protect and defend the rights, interests, health, safety, and security of Deborah Heart and Lung Center and Deborah Specialty Physicians
Business Transfers. We may transfer your information as part of a transfer of the assets of the organization, merger, or consolidation or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.
Protected Health Information. We may transfer your PHI as described in the HIPAA Notices and permitted under HIPAA. For example, if we share information containing PHI with the Deborah Hospital Foundation as described above, the HIPAA Notices will apply to such information sharing. We do not share Protected Health Information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.
Consent. We may transfer your PHI with your consent or at your direction. We may share information for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or pursuant to your consent or direction. If you choose to engage in public activities on the third party sites that we link to, you should be aware that any information you share there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these sites and forums. You should use caution in disclosing personal information while participating in these areas. We are not responsible for the information you choose to submit in public areas.

IV. Security

We use technical and other security measures to protect your information from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. You should understand that no data storage system or transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100 percent secure. Any information that you choose to transmit over the Internet is done at your own risk.

V. Third-party Links, Content and Tracking

Some of the Services may contain links to content maintained by third parties that we do not control. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties, and the information practices of these third parties are not covered by this Digital Privacy Policy.

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service in order to help us better monitor and manage our services. You may opt-out of Google Analytics by visiting this link.

For some of our Services, we may enable one or more Google Analytics Advertising Features, including: Remarketing with Analytics; Demographics and Interests Reporting; Campaign Manager Integration; Google Display Network Impression Reporting; and Segments. The Google Analytics Advertising Features use advertising cookies to tailor digital advertisements to your interests. You may opt-out of the Google advertising cookies by following the steps outlined in Google’s Privacy & Terms under the section “How you can control advertising cookies” and you may learn more about your privacy options regarding Facebook cookies in their Privacy Policy here. We do not share PHI with Google or Facebook.

This Web site may contain links to other Web sites, and other Web sites may provide links to this Site. These links are provided for your convenience only. We do not control these other sites and do not endorse, nor do we assume any liability or responsibility for them, including any content or services provided to you by such sites. You should not consider any link to or from another site as an endorsement of that site by us unless we expressly state so. We do not share PHI with these other Web sites.

For your convenience, the Privacy Policies/Terms of Service for some of these third party Web sites are provided below. You should read these any time you access any content or services provided by such sites.

VI. International Users

We do not knowingly allow use of the Services outside of the United States of America. We maintain information in the United States of America and in accordance with the laws of the United States, which may not provide the same level of protection as the laws in other jurisdictions, and therefore, the Services are intended only for use within the United States. Please contact us directly by phone if you are outside of the United States of America and you need additional information. Any use of the Services and provision of information from outside of the United States of America in disregard of this is at your own risk and you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction in any such circumstance and thereafter processed within the United States.

VII. Children

We do not knowingly allow individuals under the age of 18 to create accounts that allow access to our Services or collect information from children under the age of 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on this site or on or through any of the Services.

VIII. Changes to the Privacy Policy

We may update this Digital Privacy Policy from time to time. When we update the Digital Privacy Policy, we will revise the “Effective Date” date above and post the new Digital Privacy Policy on our website. We recommend that you review the Digital Privacy Policy each time you visit the Services to stay informed of our current privacy practices that apply to all information as of the revised Effective Date. You can always refuse to accept any changes by not continuing to use the Services.

IX. Questions?

If you have any questions about this Digital Privacy Policy or our practices, please email us at WebsitePrivacy@deborah.org