Patient Rights & Responsibilities

Protecting your personal information

Health care providers must have your signature to use and share your personal health information, per the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This rule exists to help ensure trust between you and your health care team. View HIPAA guidelines.

You also have a variety of rights related to your care as a patient. Below is information regarding your privacy when using our website. If you have any questions about our Website Privacy Policy, please email us or call 800-856-1983.

Web Privacy Policy

Our Website Privacy Policy helps describe how Newton-Wellesley Hospital, as a part of Mass General Brigham System, collects, uses, and shares information about you through our website.

Our Privacy Policy applies only to information we collect through the Newton-Wellesley Hospital website. Other sites owned by or affiliated with Mass General Brigham are governed by their own separate privacy policies. Our site also contains links to third-party sites that aren’t owned or controlled by Mass General Brigham, so please be aware that we aren’t responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. Make sure to  read the privacy statements of every website that collects your personal information.

Please note that your use of our site is also subject to our Terms and Conditions and Notice of Privacy Practices.

Information We Collect

You typically won’t disclose personal, identifiable information while using the Newton-Wellesley Hospital website unless you opt to submit such information through an email that contains your personal information. However, keep in mind that electronic transmissions via the internet aren’t 100 percent secure from interception.

Our web server collects and saves the default information that’s logged by World Wide Web server software to help improve our service by evaluating traffic to our site, such as the number of unique visitors, level of demand, most popular page requests, and types of errors. These logs — which may be kept for an indefinite amount of time and are used at any time and in any way necessary to prevent security breaches — include the following information:

  • Completion status of the request
  • Date and time
  • Object requested
  • Originating IP address and domain name (the unique address assigned to your internet service provider’s computer that connects to the internet)

If you are under the age of 13, please do not attempt to register with us at this Site or provide any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will promptly delete that information. If you believe we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, please contact us.

Cookies

We use cookies, web beacons, and other technologies to receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with our site through your computer or mobile device. A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. When you visit the site again, the cookie allows the site to recognize your browser. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service, including for storing user preferences, and tracking user trends

Cookies may store unique identifiers, user preferences, and other information. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some site features or services may not function properly without cookies.

How We Use and Share Your Information

To Facilitate or Provide Services and Information

We collect information from you in order to:

  • Contact you about your service requests
  • Facilitate or provide services that you request from us
  • Process credit card transactions
  • Provide information that you request from us
  • Register and service your online account

For Clinical Research

We (and our researchers and affiliates) may collect, use, and share information from you for the purposes of:

  • Determining which clinical research opportunities may be of interest to you
  • Conducting clinical research as part of a research study in which you have agreed to participate as a research subject or researcher
  • Contacting you to participate in research opportunities
  • Providing you information regarding research studies or medical information you have requested

Please note that not all research studies collect, use, and share data in the same way. In certain cases, you are provided with a consent or authorization form regarding a specific research project that explains the types of information collected and the purposes for which the information is collected, used, and shared. If you receive a consent or authorization form for a research study, the description of the collection, use, or sharing of your information, pertains only to that specific study.

Sharing with Third Parties

We may provide information to third-party service providers to help us:

  • Deliver services you purchase through our site
  • Operate and manage our site
  • Process services requests

Additionally, we may provide information to affiliated individuals and organizations that explains professional medical services that you can access through our site. These service providers will have access to your personal information in order to provide these services. When this occurs, we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections to limit their use of the information, helping us provide the service.

Your Consent

We share your personal information with companies, organizations, or individuals outside of Mass General Brigham and its affiliates when you provide us with consent to do so. By using our site, you consent to the collection, use, and sharing of this information as described in this policy.

Legal Proceedings

We will share personal information with third-party companies, organizations, or individuals outside of Mass General Brigham and its affiliates if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:
Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues
Enforce applicable Terms of Use, including investigation of potential violations
Meet any applicable law, regulation, subpoena, legal process, or enforceable governmental request
Protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of Partners, the site, our users, customers, or the public, as required or permitted by law

Any copyright infringement claims occurring on Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s network should be reported. Learn how to report claims of copyright infringement.

Transfer in the Event of Sale or Change of Control

If the ownership of all, or substantially all, of our business changes or we otherwise transfer assets relating to our business or the site to a third party (such as by merger, acquisition, bankruptcy proceeding, or otherwise) we may transfer or sell your personal information to the new owner. In such a case, unless permitted otherwise by applicable law, your information would remain subject to the promises made in the applicable Website Privacy Policy, unless you agree differently.

If you use our website and provide us with information, you are agreeing that you understand your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction, and to the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, that you consent to the transfer of such data to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Security of Your Information

We use industry-standard physical, technical, and administrative security measures and safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information. However, since the internet is not a 100 percent secure environment, we cannot guarantee, ensure, or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. Moreover, there is no guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that while communications and information you send to us using our site are encrypted, emails and other communications you send to us outside of the site are not. Thus, we strongly advise you not to communicate any confidential information through unencrypted email.

Changes to Our Website Privacy Policy

Our Website Privacy Policy may change from time to time. But we will not reduce your rights under this Website Privacy Policy without your consent in accordance with applicable law. We will post any privacy policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice, such as an email notification.

Users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland

If you are a resident of the EEA or Switzerland, the following information applies with respect to personal data collected through your use of our site.

Use of Website

If you use our website and provide us with information, you consent to the collection, use, and sharing of this information as described in this policy. Furthermore, you consent to understand and agree that your information may be transferred and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction and, to the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, that you consent to the transfer of such data to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this Website Privacy Policy.

Purposes of Processing and Legal Basis for Processing

We process personal data in various ways depending on your use of the services. We process personal data on the following legal bases:

  • As necessary for our legitimate interests in providing the services where those interests don’t override your fundamental rights and freedoms related to data privacy
  • As necessary to provide the services
  • With your consent

Transfers

Personal data we collect may be transferred to, and stored and processed in, the United States or any other country in which we, or our affiliates or processors, maintain facilities. We will use reasonable efforts to ensure that transfers of personal data to a country or an international organization outside the EEA or Switzerland are subject to appropriate safeguards.

Your Rights

You are entitled to the rights under Chapter III of the EU General Data Protection Regulation or Section 2 of the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection with respect to the processing of your personal data, which include the right to access and rectify and to request erasure of personal data. In order to verify your identity, we may require you to provide us with personal information prior to accessing any records containing information about you.

If you have any concerns, the Office of Patient Relations at Newton-Wellesley Hospital is responsible for managing them. Learn more about the Office of Patient Relations.