Privacy Policy / HIPAA Compliance

What is HIPAA?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA for short) was signed into law in August of 1996 by President Bill Clinton. HIPAA began its life as the Kennedy-Kassenbaum Bill, introduced by Senators Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Nancy Kassenbaum of Kansas.

HIPAA is a large and complex piece of legislation that deals with many issues, some of which do not directly affect consumers of health care services. For patients and health care providers HIPAA raises the awareness for the privacy of an individual's protected health information to a level not previously known. HIPAA affects everyone in this country in some way. For the patient it insures a level of privacy protection and rights not had before and for the healthcare worker it changes, in many ways, how they do their job.

The Privacy portion of HIPAA became effective on April 14, 2003 . We at Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home have always respected the private and confidential nature of what we do and it is our intention to be compliant with the HIPAA standards.

Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home position on HIPAA

At Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home the privacy of your health information has always been at the forefront of our emphasis. New employees are trained in the confidential nature of what we do and the expectation of treating patient information confidentially is continually re-enforced.

Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home has implemented several safeguards, both administrative and technical in order to assure that we comply with the law. WCHNH has designated a Privacy Officer as well as a Security Officer. These individuals are responsible for the on-going assurance that our facilities are in compliance with the HIPAA standards. The Privacy Officer is also responsible for the development of policies and procedures that insure the protection of your health information as well as assuring that management staff trains our employees on those policies.

WCHNH is increasing safeguards that are already in place, both administrative and technical, to further protect patient information that is stored electronically on our computer systems.

Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home believes that the standards for the privacy of your health information, expressed in the HIPAA guidelines, are the right thing to do and we will continue our commitment to privacy and confidentiality by complying with the standards.

Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home Privacy Officer can be reached by telephone at (251) 847-2223 Ext. 215.

Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home Security Officer can be reached by telephone at (251) 847-2223 Ext. 220.

Notice of Privacy Practices

Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home has developed a Notice of Privacy Practice that denotes how medical information about you may be used and how you can access Protected Health Information (PHI).

To view the Washington County Hospital & Nursing Home Notice of Privacy Practice, please click here.