Effingham Health System Privacy Notice
Effective Date: July 27, 2023
This Privacy Notice describes how Effingham Health System (“Effingham Health,” “us,” “our,” or “we”) collects, uses, and shares personal information via its website at https://www.effinghamhealth.org/ (our “Site”). This Notice applies to personal information provided, transmitted, or submitted through our Site, and it also describes the choices we offer with respect to such data.
This Notice does not describe the practices of third parties, including third party services that may be linked from our Site. You should contact those parties directly to learn how they may use your information. This Privacy Notice does not apply to information that cannot be identified to any individual, household, or their devices.
If you are a patient, we may receive information which is considered protected health information (PHI) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). To understand how we handle PHI, you should refer to our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.
Information We Collect
How We Use Information We Collect
How We Secure Information
How We Share Information
What Choices Do I Have?
Updates to Our Privacy Notice
Contact Information
Product Specific Disclosures
To provide our Site, we may collect data by which you may be personally identified. We may also collect information about the devices and equipment you use to access our Site, including usage data.
We collect this information from a variety of sources, including:
- Directly from you when you provide it to us.
- Automatically as you utilize the Site.
Information directly from you. If you are a visitor of our Site, we may collect your name, email, address, and the contents of any messages you may submit when you fill out forms on our website or otherwise interact with us.
Information we collect through automatic data collection technologies. We, and service providers using data on our behalf or subject to applicable law, may collect data regarding your use of our Site through cookies, web beacons, and other automatically collected information. Accordingly, other parties may collect personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites when you use our Site or related services. This data may include your IP address, date and time you access our Site and the pages and content you access during your visit, websites that you link to or from, whether you receive or open an email or other communication from us, and the links you click on within those emails. We may also collect information from your mobile device or your computer about how you interact with our Sites, including the date of the visit, the time of arrival and length of visit to the Site, the type of device used and the operating system on that device, browser type, a list of files downloaded or pages viewed, your IP address, and any errors encountered. This information helps us address customer support issues, provide you with a personalized experience, prevent fraudulent use of our services, and manage the Site, including gathering aggregated data about engagement.
Cookies are small identifiers sent from a web server that are stored on your device for the purpose of identifying your browser or storing information or settings in your browser. Cookies may also be used to personalize your visit by storing your preferences or displaying content based upon what you have viewed through our Sites and other websites. Web beacons or pixel tags connect web pages to web servers and their cookies. We and others may use these and similar technologies on our services and other websites.
We do not respond to “do not track” signals or other mechanisms that provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personally identifiable information about an individual consumer’s online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services.
Information we collect from third party sources. With respect to our Site, we may collect information from third parties or service providers we and you interact with. For example, you may use a patient portal or bill pay functionality linked from our Site. We may collect information from these sources. For more information about the patient portal see the Patient Portal privacy notice.
How We Use Information We Collect
We may use data we collect for a variety of purposes, including:
- To enable patients and website visitors to utilize our Site and other services.
- To personalize our Site for patients and website visitors.
- To maintain, analyze, customize, measure, and improve our Site, which includes generating internal reports about the use of our Site.
- To provide customer support.
- To communicate with you, including about products updates and offerings that we think they may be interested in.
- For account management, finance, dispute resolution, and reporting purposes.
- To monitor and enforce our legal terms or similar terms.
- To comply with law and satisfy our regulatory compliance obligations.
- For internal business reasons, including internal audits or investigations, company research, and insurance purposes.
- To detect and prevent fraud and other prohibited, illicit or illegal activity, and to protect you, ourselves, and others.
- To otherwise operate our business.
- For other purposes permitted by law or to which you consent.
Please note that we may combine the information we gather about you in identifiable form, including information from third parties to use or disclose as permitted by state and federal laws. We may use this information, for example, to improve and personalize our services, content and provide information to you regarding our healthcare operations.
How We Secure Information
We are committed to maintaining measures to protect the security of your information. Of course, despite these measures, no network or system is ever entirely secure and we cannot guarantee the security of networks and systems that we operate or that are operated on our behalf.
How We Share Information
We may share your information with third parties as permitted or required by law, or as directed or authorized by you. For example, we may disclose your information:
- With service providers and vendors who help with our business operations, including to help provide our Site and services to you.
- With our professional advisors who provide legal, compliance, accounting, banking, or consulting services.
- To comply with our legal obligations or to protect our interests, property or legal rights, or those of our customers or third parties.
- With law enforcement, officials, or other third parties when we are compelled to do so by a subpoena, court order, or similar law enforcement request, or when we believe in good faith that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss, to report suspected illegal activity, or to investigate violations of this Privacy Notice or other applicable terms.
- We may share some or all of your information with our parent companies, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us.
- With companies or other entities in connection with, or during the negotiation of, any merger, sale of company stock or assets, financing, acquisition, divestiture or dissolution of all or a portion of our business.
- For other legal purposes, such as to enforce our terms and conditions, or to exercise or defend legal claims.
- As permitted by law or with your direction or consent.
What Choices Do I Have?
Update personal informationIf you are a patient of Effingham Health, you may update certain information by logging in to your account on the patient portal. You may send us an email at portal@effinghamhospital.org. to request to correct any personal information that you have provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement, cause the information to be incorrect, or prevent the provision of our services.
Promotional communications. We may offer you the opportunity to subscribe to digital newsletters and other messaging from us. You may opt out of receiving promotional emails, by following the unsubscribe link in each email or email us at
If you have any questions or concern about this privacy notice or the privacy practices at Effingham Health, please contact us by email at compliance@effinghamhospital.org. Please note that you may continue to receive non-promotional emails and messages from us after you opt-out.
Cookies. You have a number of choices regarding certain cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you may modify your browser’s setting to notify you of cookie placement or decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, certain features of our website may not function properly or at all as a result.
Updates to Our Privacy Notice
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time in order to provide clarification or notice of changes to our practices. If we make changes, we will revise the Effective Date at the top of this Privacy Notice. Changes to this Privacy Notice will be effective once they are posted unless otherwise indicated. We may choose to notify you by email to the primary email address specified in our records.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or concern about this privacy notice or the privacy practices at Effingham Health, please contact us by email at compliance@effinghamhospital.org.