Our Privacy Policy was last updated on July 29, 2004.
You may also review our HIPAA Privacy Policy which covers protected health information (PHI) used in our clinical practice.
Responsibility of the User
The material contained on this Site is for informational purposes only.
No information or service offered through the Iowa Heart Center, P.C. web site constitutes or can serve as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Always seek the advice of your doctor if you have any questions and before you stop, start or change any treatment plan, including the use of medication. The diagnosis or treatment of any disease or condition may be based on personal history, family history, symptoms, a physical examination, and other information considered important by your doctor, along with the additional information provided by test results.
You agree to cooperate with Iowa Heart Center in protecting the security of the Site, and if you choose to register to receive your patient information on the Site, you agree not to use your access to enable anyone to gain unauthorized access to any area of the Site that is not accessible by the general public. You also agree that it is your sole responsibility to keep your password, user name and PIN in a safe, secure place, and to control who has access to that information and to your test results information on the Site.
You agree to immediately notify Iowa Heart Center Online if you learn of: (a) any loss or theft of your user name or password, (b) any unauthorized use of your user name or password, or (c) any other unauthorized access to or use of the Site.
Information Collection and Use
Iowa Heart Center, P.C. has responsibility for information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. Iowa Heart Center, P.C. collects information from our users at several different points on our website to facilitate your user experience.
Registration
In order to use the personalized features of this website, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is required to give their contact information (such as name and email address). This information is used to provide personalized services and to contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest. A user is also required to disclose unique identifiers (such as your social security number). This information is used to allow the user access to advanced web site features such as online appointment requests and messaging.
Use of Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data used by the site and web browser to facilitate personalized site services. A cookie can be stored on the user’s hard drive, or may only be used during the length of the web browsing session. Our site makes use of temporary, session-based cookies - which are not stored on the user’s hard drive - for personalized access to our site. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates. Absolutely no personally identifiable information is stored in these temporary cookies except for a username which is used for site personalization and greetings.
Server Logs and IP Addresses
We collect and log site activity, which includes an IP addresses, which allows us to analyze trends, administer the site, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
Links
This Site may contain links to external sites not under the control of Iowa Heart Center, P.C. Please be aware that Iowa Heart Center, P.C. is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Site.
E-Newsletters
If a user wishes to subscribe to our email-based newsletters, we verify contact information such as email address before continuing with the subscription or unsubscription from such e-newsletters.
Surveys
From time-to-time our site may request information from users via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include demographic information (such as zip code or age). Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.
Security
This website takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-line.
When our registration form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as a social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL (Secure Socket Layer).
While on a secure page, such as our bill pay form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browser windows such as Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line on our servers. All of our users’ information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our appointments clerk or a customer service representatives) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment, behind code and key locked doors.
If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an email through the Contact Us form.
Special Offers
We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on services, heart center announcements, and a newsletter if requested. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to sign up to receive these types of communications or to cancel.
Site and Service Updates
We may also from time to time send the user site and service announcement updates. Members will automatically receive service announcements which contain important information about the service.
We communicate with the user to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account via email or phone.
Correction/Updating Personal Information
If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as your address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavor to provide a way to correct, update or remove that user’s personal data provided to us. This can usually be done on the My Account page or by emailing our Customer Support through the Contact Us form.
Choice/Opt-out
Users are only sent mandatory site announcements unless they opt to sign up for heart center announcement and newsletter services. Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter or heart center announcements may opt-out of receiving these communications by unsubscribing to the service through the subscriptions page. Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with services that require an outside party, or not.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our Homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.