TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE
The OrthoCarolina MyChart service ("MyChart") is provided solely for the convenience of patients of OrthoCarolina and Mallard Creek Surgery Center. Your access to and use of MyChart is subject to and governed by these MyChart Terms and Conditions of Use ("Terms and Conditions" or "Agreement") and applicable law, rules and regulations. Throughout this Agreement, OrthoCarolina and Mallard Creek Surgery Center are collectively referred to as "OrthoCarolina," "we," or "us." Throughout this Agreement, users of MyChart will be referred to as "you" or "Users".
Please read this Agreement carefully before signing up for, accessing or using MyChart. If you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions, please exit the MyChart site ("Site").
Medical Disclaimer
MyChart constitutes neither the practice of any medical, nursing or other health profession nor the provision of health care or any other professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. The information in MyChart is not your complete, official medical record, nor should it be relied on in any way for medical decision-making or to suggest a course of treatment for you or anyone else. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem or condition, call your physician. Never disregard medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in MyChart. NEVER USE MYCHART FOR EMERGENCY OR OTHER URGENT MEDICAL ISSUES. IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING A MEDICAL EMERGENCY OR NEED URGENT MEDICAL CARE, IMMEDIATELY CALL 911 (IF YOU ARE IN THE UNITED STATES), GO TO YOUR LOCAL EMERGENCY ROOM, AND/OR CALL YOUR PHYSICIAN.
Minor Eligibility
An individual must be age 18 or older to request a personal account. Parents or guardians of minor children may request access to the minor child's account by following the terms outlined in the "Proxy Access" section of this Terms and Conditions statement. Minor children between the ages of 12 and 17 (inclusive) will not be eligible to participate in MYCHART services. Under State and Federal law, there are certain types of medical information that the parent or guardian of a minor patient age 12 or older may not view without consent of the minor patient. Because of these requirements, we cannot offer services to parents of minor patients in this age category. Thus, when a minor patient reaches age 12, access will be revoked to MYCHART until he/she reaches age 18.
Proxy Access
Parents or legal guardians of unemancipated minors between the ages of 12 and 17 may request proxy access to the minor child’s MYCHART account by completing the Proxy Access portion of the MYCHART Consent Form and submitting it to OrthoCarolina. Such access will only be granted to parties with parental rights or legal guardianship over the MYCHART account holder and only to the extent that the party requesting proxy access can demonstrate the legal right to account holder's medical information. Only one person will be granted proxy access to a MYCHART account. A MYCHART account will be activated for both the proxy and the account holder. If the proxy’s legal relationship with the account holder changes, the proxy must inform the OrthoCarolina immediately.
Proxy access is subject to federal and state data privacy, security and confidentiality laws which require OrthoCarolina and its providers to limit, or in some cases prohibit, proxy accounts and/or proxy access to certain patient information in MyChart. For example, proxy access to information of an OrthoCarolina patient who is an unemancipated minor over age 12 but under age 18 will generally be very limited without the patient's prior consent, though in certain circ*mstances the patient's OrthoCarolina physicians may, in the exercise of their professional judgment, take additional steps to revoke, expand or limit such access.
Response to Electronic Communication
OrthoCarolina will make its best effort to provide a timely response to electronic inquiries. In some cases, the staff who needs to respond to an electronic inquiry or other communication may not be immediately available. Accordingly, emergency situations requiring immediate attention should not be submitted electronically.
Furthermore, with respect to any electronic communications sent by the patient, we are only able to respond to such communications based on the information provided by the patient. If there is insufficient information provided, we will be unable to provide accurate and reliable services.
E-mail Privacy
Patients who are users of MYCHART should be aware that they will be notified via e-mail when there is new medical information to be viewed on MYCHART. This means that any person with access to a patient’s e-mail will be able to see this notification. This could include the patient’s spouse, employer or anyone else that can access a patient’s e-mail account. Although no private medical information will be sent, the notification that new medical information is available by accessing MYCHART may be information that a patient would not want others to know. Thus, patients should take this into account when providing an e-mail address.
Please know that if you send us an e-mail communication, it may be shared with the OrthoCarolina staff who assist the physician in providing the patient’s medical care. A patient’s confidential medical information on MYCHART will be accessible only to appropriate clinical staff.
Web Site Links
MYCHART may offer links to related medical Web sites not managed by OrthoCarolina. These Web site link(s) are for a patient’s informational purposes only. OrthoCarolina does not endorse and has not verified the accuracy of the information in/on these Web sites, and the patient should not rely on any of the information found on the Web sites for purposes of treatment or diagnosis.
Security and Confidentiality
We afford the same degree of confidentiality to medical information stored on MYCHART as is given to medical information stored by OrthoCarolina in any other medium. OrthoCarolina is committed to protecting the confidentiality of your medical information. We limit OrthoCarolina employees’ access and ability to enter or view information based upon their role in your care. Firewalls, passwords, encryption, and audit trails are further used to safeguard your information. We shall identify the records released and note the time and date of access each time a patient accesses MYCHART. We have taken steps to make all information received from our online visitors as secure as possible against unauthorized access and use.
For other than general information viewing, MYCHART must be accessed with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) compatible browser or terminal. Our SSL web server uses authentication and offers the highest level of encryption technology commercially available.
You can tell when you are secure by looking at the location (URL) field. If the URL begins with https:// (instead of http://), the document comes from a secure server. This means your data cannot be read or deciphered by unauthorized individuals. You can tell whether you are truly connected to OrthoCarolina by viewing the digital certificate. This certificate verifies the connection between OrthoCarolina server's public key and the server's identification.
USE OF THIRD-PARTY SERVICES
You may choose to use other services provided by third parties in conjunction with your use of MyChart. Such services may include, but are not limited to, translation services, location services, and other third-party offerings. Any links to such services are provided for your convenience only. Neither Epic nor OrthoCarolina have control over the contents of these services, and neither Epic nor OrthoCarolina accept any responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. Such services may require you to submit your information to a third party, which may result in a copy of your information being used and/or stored by a third party. If you decide to access any such services in conjunction with your use of MyChart, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such services.
