Southcoast Health System, Inc. and its affiliates (collectively, “Southcoast Health,” “we,” “us” or “our”) are committed to protecting and preserving your privacy.  This Website Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy” or “Policy”) describes the manner in which we process, use and disclose information that you provide to us or that we collect when you use our Site. By using the Southcoast.org website (“Site”) you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Important: Protected Health Information, as that term is defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and its implementing regulations (“HIPAA”), including information that you provide to us at one of our facilities while being treated as a patient of that facility or within our patient portal, is not covered by this Privacy Policy and is subject to our Notice of Privacy Practices.

Your Consent

By using this Site, you consent to the use of the information that you provide to us in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 

We do update this Privacy Policy from time to time so please review this Privacy Policy regularly. If we materially alter our Privacy Policy, we will notify you of such changes by posting a notice on our Site. Your continued use of the Site will be deemed your agreement that your information may be used in accordance with the new policy.  If you do not agree with the changes, then you should stop using the Site. 

Please read this Policy carefully to fully understand how we collect, disclose and secure information about you.  This Policy is incorporated into and is a part of the Terms of Use for this Site.  To access the Terms of Use, click here.

By accessing and using the Site, you agree that you have read and understand this Privacy Policy and that you accept and consent to the privacy practices and uses and disclosures of your information as described herein. 

Information We Collect

In operating our Site, we may collect and process the following data about you:

1. Details of your visits to our Site and the resources that you access, including, but not limited to, traffic data, generalized location data (by city or region only), weblogs and other communication data, the date and time your device accessed or left the Site, and which pages you viewed.  Some parts of our Site use cookies and other technologies to collect this information about your general internet usage.  See section below entitled “Cookies, Tracking and Internet-based Advertising” to learn more.

2. When you reply to any of our communications with a request through our Site, we may need to collect additional information. For example, you may be asked to provide personally identifiable information, such as name, email address, or other demographic information. We collect and retain the information you submit on our Site.
3. If you submit to Southcoast Health through the Site any personally identifiable information relating to you or to other people, you represent that you have the authority to submit such personally identifiable information to Southcoast Health and to grant Southcoast Health the right to transmit, monitor, retrieve, store and use your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy in connection with the operation of the Site or the service requested by you through the Site and/or the services that we provide.
4. Patients of Southcoast Health can elect to create a MyChart patient portal account by visiting the MyChart login page here. MyChart is a secure portal available for patients to retrieve test results, manage appointments, message or interact with a patient’s care team using telehealth services, renew or review prescriptions, and pay bills.  Use of MyChart is subject to separate terms and conditions available on the MyChart login page.
5. Information provided to us when you communicate with us through the Site for any reason.
6. Information about you necessary to facilitate your connection to and use of the Site, such as your IP address.

Cookies, Tracking and Internet-based Advertising
A “cookie” is a piece of text which asks permission to be placed on your device’s hard drive. Cookies help us improve our Site and provide the features and functions of our Site to you.  They present the content from our Site in the most effective manner for you and your device.

Our Site works with third-party products or services (“Service Providers”) to offer and present our Site to you in the best way. For example, these Service Providers allow us to analyze our Site user activity, measure the effectiveness of our advertising efforts, and support the optimization of our digital marketing campaigns. We use web analytics and tag management services and tools provided by certain Service Providers to collect certain information relating to your use of this Site. We use these services and tools to calculate metrics like bounce rate, page views trends and number of device sessions that together help Southcoast Health understand how our Site content is being utilized. Southcoast Health does not attempt to identify you through your use of the Site, unless you voluntarily submit identifying information to us.

Southcoast Health uses limited “cookies” belonging to its Service Providers. The information collected through these cookies and other technologies is stored and retrievable either for the duration of the Site visit (known as “session cookies”), or until some later point in time set by our Site setting the cookie (known as “persistent cookies”).

Examples of information we collect through the use of these cookie technologies may include the number of visitors and visits to our Site and what is done while on our Site. We use this information in the aggregate to understand how our visitors as a group use different resources and to help us improve our Site and the services we offer. We and our Service Providers use this information in the aggregate to understand how our visitors utilize different online resources and to help us improve our Site and its performance. We may provide third parties with aggregate statistics about our visitors, traffic patterns, and related site information. This data reflects site-usage patterns gathered during visits to our Site each month; but, except under limited circumstances described herein, any shared data does not contain information that personally identifies you unless you have given us permission to share that information.

You can access the information on our Site without enabling cookies in your browser or if you click “Reject All” on our Site’s Cookie consent pop-up; however, disabling cookies may result in a diminished ability to take advantage of the services and related informational content on our Site. You can modify your browser preferences to block or restrict cookies if you do not want your web browsing activity tracked as well as deny cookies through our Cookie Consent notification tool that you see when visiting our site.  Please note that if you delete your cookies or upgrade your browser after having opted out of cookies on the Site, you will need to opt out again. Further, if you use multiple browsers or devices you will need to opt out on each browser or device.

Use of Your Information

The information that we collect and store relating to you is primarily used to enable us to provide our Site and services to you in the best possible manner and helps us monitor the performance of our Site.  In addition, we may use the information for the following purposes:

1. To provide you with information relating to our services;
2. To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information;
3. To provide third parties with statistical information about the users of our Site;
4. To monitor and conduct an analysis of our Site traffic and usage patterns;
5. To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order or governmental regulations;
6. To analyze trends; and
7. To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which information held by us about our Site users is among the assets transferred.

We will not use personally identifiable information for purposes other than as described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise permitted by applicable law. We will not use personally identifiable information we collect from you for purposes that are materially different, unrelated, or incompatible with this Privacy Policy without providing you with notice and/or updating this Privacy Policy.

Security
Southcoast Health is highly committed to protecting the privacy of the personally identifiable information you provide to us via this Site. Southcoast utilizes reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized access to such personally identifiable information, and it uses a security infrastructure that is designed to protect the integrity and privacy of personally identifiable information submitted to us via this Site. As an additional security measure, your personally identifiable information collected through the Site is also encrypted during transmission.

Nonetheless, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and therefore we cannot and do not guarantee the security of data sent to us electronically on our Site and transmission of such data is therefore entirely at your own risk.  Although we are committed to protecting your personally identifiable information, Southcoast Health cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us through a third-party application that you may utilize to interact with our Site, and you do so at your own risk. If you wish, you can contact us instead by the telephone numbers provided throughout our Site to provide us with your personally identifiable information.

Please do not provide us with personally identifiable information via email. Note that email communications that you send us via the email links on our Site are not automatically encrypted, and it is possible that unencrypted email communications with us may be accessed or viewed by another internet user while in transit to us.   If you have personally identifiable information to communicate, please use the appropriate secure online form or use the secure Southcoast Health MyChart portal when appropriate for health care matters to engage your care team.

Southcoast Health will never request your MyChart password, user ID, credit card information or other similar personal information through email.

Disclosing Your Information

Where applicable, we may disclose your personally identifiable information to our affiliates or to third parties that we contract with to provide services to you, administer our Site, inform you of the services we offer or perform other services on our behalf.  We may also disclose your personally identifiable information to other third parties, such as:

1. Where we sell or share any or all of our business and/or our assets to a third party, whether through bankruptcy proceedings or other sale or merger; and
2. Where we are legally required to disclose your information, including, but not limited to, pursuant to a valid subpoena, order, search warrant or other law enforcement request.

Third Party Websites and Digital Media Services

This Privacy Policy applies only to this Site. This Site may contain links to other websites, including websites not operated or owned by Southcoast Health. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to websites or digital media services, such as cable television and/or streaming services, not owned or operated by Southcoast Health. We encourage you to read the privacy policy on any other website or digital media service you may visit or utilize before providing them with personal or other information to understand their data collection and privacy policies. 

By accessing other websites through our Site, you are consenting to the terms and privacy policies of those websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy policies of any third-party websites whatsoever as we have no control over them.

Artificial Intelligence

Southcoast Health takes your privacy seriously and will, where practicable, make efforts to provide you with notice when interacting with portions of the Site that may utilize artificial intelligence (“AI”). Southcoast Health will, where practicable, make efforts to give you an option to decline the use of AI tools and to obtain customer service from Southcoast Health through a means that does not require your interaction with AI. The AI tools on our Site, such as Southcoast Health’s “SAM” chatbot located on our homepage, are designed to provide automated general information and support on various topics related to services provided by Southcoast Health. THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE AI TOOLS UTILIZED ON THE SITE ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND USE OF THE AI TOOLS IS NOT, AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE, A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE, DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT. FURTHERMORE, USE OF ANY AI TOOLS DOES NOT CREATE A PROVIDER-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOUTHOCAST HEALTH OR A SOUTHCOAST HEALTH PRACTITIONER AND YOU. While Southcoast Health embraces the use of AI in the provision of general information to visitors to our Site, AI may not always provide you with accurate information. SOUTHCOAST HEALTH CANNOT AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED TO YOU THROUGH USE OF AI ON OUR SITE.

Contacting Us

Southcoast Health welcomes all compliments and concerns regarding the service you received as a patient or as a visitor of our Site.  Please do not hesitate to contact us at:

Southcoast Health System, Inc.
101 Page Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
877-264-7244

Or Fill out the online feedback form by clicking here.

Effective Date: May 6, 2024