The Cleveland Clinic has in place detailed policies and procedures regarding access to all medical records by our staff and employees and has carefully outlined the circumstances under which your medical information may be released to parties outside the organization. These policies conform to state and federal law and are designed to safeguard your privacy. Our staff and employees are educated in Cleveland Clinic confidentiality policies and the appropriate use of medical information.
A Cleveland Clinic employee’s violation of confidentiality policies is considered a serious offense. Failure of an employee to protect patient information from accidental or unauthorized access is not tolerated.
As we provide your health care, we are required to maintain documentation of your medical history, current conditions, treatment plan and all treatments given, including the results of all tests, procedures and therapies. MyChart is an Internet application that enables a patient to have secured web-based access to portions of their electronic medical record, and allows secure electronic messaging with Cleveland Clinic. Messages you send via MyChart may be made part of your permanent medical record at the discretion of the physician. Once it is made part of your record, it will be accessible to current and future Cleveland Clinic staff members who are appropriately involved with your care.
All Cleveland Clinic generated electronic medical record content is subject to all state and federal statutes governing the security and confidentiality of medical records.
MyChart should never be used for urgent matters. For all urgent medical matters, contact your physician’s office by phone, go to an emergency room, or dial 911.
If your physician is out of the office or unavailable to respond, messages sent via MyChart may be routed to other authorized caregivers within The Cleveland Clinic in order to facilitate a timely response to your request.
All communications between you and your Cleveland Clinic health care team using MyChart are carried over a secure, encrypted connection directly into the Cleveland Clinic electronic medical record. While you may receive Internet e-mail messages notifying you of new messages in your MyChart Inbox, these e-mails will not contain any confidential medical information. All medical record information and MyChart messages securely reside behind The Cleveland Clinic’s firewall.
When you initially enroll to use MyChart, you will be provided an access code. It is extremely important that you keep your MyChart access code and password completely confidential. Anyone with access to your access code and password will be able to view your medical informationand communicate with your health care team as if that person were you. It is your responsibility to prevent disclosure of your access code or password - and to change your password if you feel that your security has been compromised. You can change your password online at any time.