Privacy and terms of use

Health Information

Children’s Minnesota handles health information carefully and is dedicated to maintaining your privacy. Health information is information that identifies you as a current or former Children’s Minnesota patient and relates to your health condition, health care services and payment or coverage for your services.

Please consult the Notice of Privacy Practices for Children’s Minnesota for a description of our privacy practices.

Protection of information

Children’s uses all reasonable physical means to secure and protect its site from unauthorized persons. Children’s does not warrant or represent that the information is protected against misuse or alteration by third parties.

Information and communications related to this Web site are transmitted over mediums that may be outside of the administration of Children’s. Therefore, Children’s has no liability for occurrences resulting during such transmissions.

Medical content disclaimer

The contents and information on this Web site are for your informational use only. Our site provides general child health and parenting information. Our site is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you read on this Web site.

Personal information collection or solicitation

In a few cases, visitors to some areas of our site are asked for personal information (such as an e-mail address, name, or phone number). This data is used to process requests or to verify identity.

Through interactive campaigns (such as “Share your Children’s Story”) this site also may solicit visitors to share information in a public forum. Please note that any information provided by visitors for these campaigns becomes public information. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose personal information.

Website privacy policy

Children’s Minnesota (Children’s) is committed to protecting the privacy of visitors to our website. Children’s will not disclose any information about you to third parties. All third party vendors used by Children’s to assist it in the development, hosting, or maintenance of this website must agree not to disclose any information. Children’s, in its own judgment, may release information to third parties in special cases, such as compliance with valid legal requirements.

Information sent to us by your web browser

We collect non-personal identification information that is sent to us automatically by your web browser. This information typically includes your IP address, the name and version of your operating system, the name and version of your browser, the date and time of your visit, the website you were visiting before you visited one of our sites, and the pages on our sites you visit. You can choose to set your web browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you do this, some parts of the site may not function properly.

Children’s liability

The use of this website and its content is at your own risk. The content is provided on an “as is” basis. Children’s disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, statutory or otherwise, including but not limited to the implied warranties or merchantability, non-infringement of third parties’ rights, and fitness for a particular purpose.

Children’s follows the Health On the Net (HON) code of ethics in the development of the medical content of this site, but makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, currency, or timeliness of the content.

In no event shall Children’s be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, incidental and consequential damages, personal injury/wrongful death, lost profits, or damages resulting from data or business interruption) resulting from the use or inability to use the content of this Web site whether based on warranty, contract, tort or any other legal theory, and whether or not Children’s is advised of the possibility of such damages. Children’s is not liable for any claim, whatsoever, caused by your use or misuse of the Web site.

Children’s asks and you agree not to post or use any messages with misleading, false, or inappropriate language or statements or communications that may infringe or violate any rights of any party or federal or state law. Children’s reserves the right to remove any offensive or fraudulent content at any time.

Links to other websites

Links on this Web site to other Web sites are made based on our assessment that the linked site is generally a quality source of information. But in doing so Children’s makes no judgment or warranty concerning the accuracy of the information on the linked site or their privacy practices. Children’s recommends reading the privacy statements of each site you visit.

Social media disclaimer

We welcome and encourage open discussion on Children’s Minnesota’s (Children’s) social media sites – including but not limited to our blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube pages and online story-sharing forums – and look forward to any comments, stories and experiences you want to share. Other than the entries Children’s posts ourselves, the opinions and/or views expressed on these sites represent the thoughts of individual bloggers and online communities, and not those necessarily of Children’s or any of our directors, officers, employees, research staff, medical staff or members of our board of directors. All links to other Web sites found linked from Children’s social media sites are provided as a service to readers, but such linkage does not constitute endorsement of those sites by Children’s, and as such we are not responsible for the content of external Web sites.

While Children’s makes reasonable efforts to monitor and/or moderate content posted on our social media sites, we do not moderate all comments and cannot always respond in a timely manner to online requests for information. Children’s reserves the sole right to review, edit and/or delete any comments it deems are inappropriate. Comments including, but not limited to, the following may be deleted or edited by Children’s:

• Abusive or hurtful comments about a blogger or another participant.
• Off-topic and redundant comments (this includes promotion of events, groups, pages, Web sites, organizations and programs not related to or affiliated with Children’s).
• Comments that use foul language or “hate speech” (e.g., racial, ethnic or gender bashing language).
• Personal attacks or defamatory statements or comments about a participant, instead of just criticizing his/her posting, opinion or comments.
• Comments that violate the privacy of our patients and their families.
• Misinformation.
• Outside links and memes.

Please remember that information posted on any of our social media sites shouldn’t be considered medical advice and shouldn’t replace a consultation with a health care professional.

Please be aware that once you post something online, there’s the potential for thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of people to read your words, even years from now. We therefore suggest that you exercise caution when posting medical information on any of our social media sites and that you not disclose personal identifiable information like your location, medical record number, financial information, etc.

By submitting content to any of Children’s social media sites, you understand and acknowledge that this information is available to the public, and that Children’s may use this information for internal and external promotional purposes and fundraising purposes. Please note that other participants may use your posted information beyond the control of Children’s. If you do not wish to have the information you have made available via this site used, published, copied and/or reprinted, please do not post on this page.

Statement of intent for sharing Children’s content with other organizations

• The policies, procedures, standards of care, electronic medical record documents, and orientation/staff development materials have been developed and implemented for use within Children’s patient care environment.
• It is the intent of Children’s to readily share these developed components as guidelines in the interest of assuring the highest quality of care for children. It is the responsibility of the user to assure the pertinence of information received as it applies to their own institution.

Web Accessibility Statement

Updates and Changes to Privacy Policy

Children’s may at any time change, add to, or update this policy. Changes will take effect immediately upon posting.