Patient Privacy Notice

April 13, 2003

We are committed to preserving the privacy of your personal health information. The Department of Health and Human Services has established a "Privacy Rule" to help insure that personal health care information is protected for privacy. In fact, we are now required by law to protect the privacy of your medical information and to provide you with the Notice describing:

HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN ACCESS THIS INFORMATION.

We use health information about you for treatment, to obtain payment for treatment, for administrative purposes, and to evaluate the quality of care that you receive.

We may be required or permitted by certain laws to use and disclose your medical information for other purposes without your consent or authorization. As our patient, you have important rights relating to inspecting and copying your medical information that we maintain, amending or correcting that information, obtaining an accounting of our disclosures of your medical information, requesting that we communicate with you confidentially, requesting that we restrict certain uses and disclosures of your health information, and complaining if you think your rights have been violated.

We have available a detailed Notice of Privacy Practices which fully explains your rights and our obligations under the law. We may revise our Notice from time to time. The effective date at the top of the this page indicates the date of the most current Notice in effect.

You have the right to receive a copy of our most recent Notice in effect. If you have not yet received a copy of our current Notice, please ask at the front desk and we will provide you with a copy.

If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about the Notice of your medical information, please contact Dr. Janice Sherwood, Privacy Officer, in writing at 933 First Colonial Road, Suite 100, Virginia Beach, VA 23454. Linda Blake, Office Manager, may also be able to answer some of your questions.