Self-Help Support Groups

Information Collected by the Hospital

The information gathered by http://vbpcweb.com generally falls into two categories: (1) information supplied by visitors to the site when they register or initiate transactions, and (2) tracking information gathered as visitors navigate through the site. Third-party providers, whose sites are featured on and accessed via our site, may gather information, as well.

The information you provide helps the hospital respond to your employment inquiries. It also assists the hospital in providing your requested physician referrals and any online preregistration program. It also helps in responding to your questions or comments, and assisting you with registration for classes and seminars.

If you submit an Application for Employment, various demographic information is required, including your name, address, telephone number; information about your work history, education, particular skills or training, honors and awards and your professional licenses. You also are asked to provide employment references and your consent to various terms and conditions of employment.

When you supply the hospital with a Referral Request, you may be asked for various personal information, including your name, age, address, telephone number, email address and gender. You may be asked whether you would like the hospital to respond to your request by email or phone, and you may be asked for the identity of your primary health insurance plan. You may also be asked for the name of your family doctor, a description of your specific medical concerns and whether or not you have previously seen a physician about your concerns.

When you elect to preregister for services by completing an online registration form, you may be asked for much of the same personal information requested during registration: Name and primary language of the patient; name of person completing the registration form and his/her relationship to the patient; whether the patient has an advance directive or a durable power of attorney; identification of the healthcare services requested; identification of the patient primary care and admitting physicians; name and address of employer; diagnosis or the reasons for seeking treatment, a history of the patient’s prior hospital admissions; name, address, telephone and social security number(s), occupation and employer of person responsible for paying the bill; emergency contact information; and identification of the primary and secondary insurance plans of the person responsible for paying the bill.

If you request your personal health record the hospital asks for your email address, your name and your complete mailing address to receive your personal health record program. In some cases you may be asked for your name, address, city and state of residence, gender and work and home phone numbers to register for classes and seminars. In all cases where you are invited to submit questions or comments, you are asked for your email address.

Security

Generally, the information collected from visitors is stored in databases the hospital controls. Physical access to the servers on which visitor information is stored, is restricted. The hospital doesn’t share your personal information with anyone, except as may be necessary to verify your education, experience and other qualifications for employment.

Preregistration Information: To protect the privacy of your personal information, the hospital encrypts this information for transit over the Internet using a Secure Sockets Layer (“SSL”) connection. The personal information you submit to preregister at the hospital for treatment and/or tests is stored on a single server to which access is restricted to authorized hospital personnel. Once data is retrieved from the server database, these personnel will enter your personal information into the hospital’s computer system, to which access is restricted.

Online Employment Application: The hospital collects employment-related information in one of two ways. After acquiring a user name and password, you may submit an Application For Employment in pdf format. That information is stored on a server maintained by the hospital’s Internet service provider who emails the document containing your employment-related information to personnel in the hospital’s Human Resources Department specifically authorized to access it. In the alternative, the hospital may maintain a Profile form which you would complete and submit via a secure Internet connection directly to the hospital’s Human Resources Department. There, personnel authorized to access that information review it and follow up, if warranted.

Referrals: The personal information contained in your application for a physician referral is submitted over a secure connection to a server maintained by the hospital’s Internet service provider. From there, it is emailed to authorized personnel for this program, and used to follow up.

In some cases, you may be asked to provide personal information to register for seminars and classes. In those cases, you are provided a secure form for transit over the Internet, and that information is accessed by personnel authorized to process the registration.

Information you submit through use of your own email program is not secure. As effective as modern security practices are, no physical or electronic security system is impenetrable. The hospital cannot guarantee the security of its database, nor can it guarantee that information you supply won’t be intercepted while being transmitted over the Internet.

Additionally, please note that most Web browsers allow use of an SSL connection. If your browser does not support use of an SSL connection, or if you prefer not to send your personal information over the Internet, you can mail it to the appropriate address noted on this Web site.

Retention of Information

The information submitted through this site is retained in accordance with state and/or federal laws, and document retention policies of this hospital and/or its parent company.

Protecting the Privacy of Children

Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center does not market to, or employ children. Children should always get permission from their parents before sending any information about themselves (such as their names, email addresses and phone numbers) over the Internet, to this hospital or to anyone else. If you’re under 18, please don’t provide any personally identifying information during your visit to http://vbpcweb.com.

Email Addresses

If you provide your email address, from time to time you may be sent emails about job opportunities with the company that the hospital believes will interest you. The hospital will not share your email address with providers of products or services. If you do not wish to receive emails about job opportunities, please indicate when you give your email address that you’d prefer not to receive such information. If you provide your email address, it may also be used to answer any emails you send the hospital, or to follow up on your visit, physician referral, online preregistration program, in response to inquiries you made using Contact Us, or in response to your request for personal health records. Such follow-ups may include inquiries on transactions or submissions of information that appear incomplete.

Pop-up Surveys

This site does not presently use pop-up ads, nor does the hospital request information from users for surveys.

Information Collected by Third Parties

This site may include links to other Web sites, and provide access to products and services offered by third parties, whose privacy policies the hospital doesn’t control. When you access another Web site or purchase products or services or conduct other transactions through this Web site, use of any information you provide is governed by the privacy policy of the operator of the site you’re visiting or the provider of such products or services. The provider’s privacy practices may differ from those of this hospital. If you can’t find the privacy policy of any of the hospital’s provider partners via a link either from the site’s homepage or from the pages on which the products or services are offered, you should contact the provider directly for more information.

Disclosure of Information

The personal information supplied by applicants for employment is shared selectively with staff members in the Human Resources Department of the hospital, and it may be shared, as well, with recruiting and hiring managers in our home office, and at affiliated hospitals that have a business reason to know of the information because of their assigned duties.

Any personal information submitted on the form accessed through the link to “Contact” or “Contact Us,” is sent directly to the appropriate department director, who may share it with departmental or other hospital personnel whose training or expertise is necessary to provide an answer to the inquiry.

Additionally, the hospital may occasionally release information about visitors to the site when release is appropriate to comply with the law, or to protect the rights, property or safety of visitors to the hospital’s site, customers, the public or Universal Health Services. As business grows, the hospital may buy or sell various assets. In the unlikely event that Universal Health Services, one of its affiliated units or substantially all of its assets are acquired by another company, information about visitors to the site would be among the transferred assets.

Browser Level Information

The hospital’s Web server automatically collects your IP address when you request pages from the server. An IP address is a number used by computers connected to the Internet to identify your computer so that data (such as the Web pages you request) can be sent to you. Your IP address does not tell who you are. The hospital also collects information on the operating system you’re running on your computer and the Web browser software you’re using to access this site so the hospital can optimize its site for the most popular operating systems and Web browsers. And, because the hospital likes to know how you found its site, it keeps track of your IP address.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This privacy policy is subject to change. If the organization needs to change its privacy policy at some point in the future, it will post the new policy promptly. If at any point the hospital decides to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from what was stated at the time it was collected, the hospital will notify you and give you an opportunity to opt out of the proposed use. By using http://vbpcweb.com, you agree that your visit to the site, and any dispute over privacy, is governed by the then-current version of the Online Privacy Policy.

Questions or Complaints

If you have any questions or complaints that concern this Online Privacy Policy, Contact Us.

Effective date: February 24, 2012.