At Florida Health Sciences Center, Inc. d/b/a Tampa General Hospital, your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy describes Tampa General Hospital’s and its parents’, subsidiaries’, and affiliates’ (collectively, “TGH,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information when you visit the following websites: tgh.org; forgingourfuturetogether.com; tghhealthplex.com; tghphysicianplus.org; tghsurgerycenteratmorsani.com; tghoutpatientcenter.com; tgmg.org; surgeryattghoutpatientcenter.com; surgeryattghbrandonhealthplex.com; tghnorth.org; myfesc.com; myhesc.com; any website that displays or links to this Privacy Policy; or otherwise interact with us (collectively, the “Site”). “Personal information” is information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked to a particular person.
When you, or someone on your behalf, provide personal information to us, including through using our Site or otherwise engage with us, you agree to our collection, use, disclosure, and storage of personal information about you as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use our Site. A link to a Portable Document Format (PDF) version of this Privacy Policy can be found here: https://www.tgh.org/-/media/files/policies/tgh-website-privacy-policy.pdf. This policy does not cover personal information within the scope of your relationship with us as a job applicant, employee, independent contractor, director, or officer. For more information about our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information submitted throughout the employment application process and, if applicable, your terms of employment or engagement, please review the separate privacy agreement that you will encounter as part of the online application process.
“Protected health information” as defined under the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act and related regulations (collectively referred to as “HIPAA”), including information you provide within the TGH Patient Gateway portal, is separate and subject to our Notice of Privacy Practices located at https://www.tgh.org/patients-visitors/joint-notice-privacy-policy; note, however, that our Notice of Privacy Practices may differ among TGH affiliates and subsidiaries. While interacting with the Florida Endoscopy & Surgery Center and the Hernando Endoscopy and Surgery Center, your protected health information is subject to the Notice of Privacy Practices located at https://myfesc.com/asc-notice-of-privacy-practices.html and https://www.myhesc.com/asc-notice-of-privacy-practices.html, respectively.
In addition to this Privacy Policy, visitors should consult the Terms of Use located on the Site, including, but not limited to, https://www.tgh.org/terms-of-use, https://myfesc.com/asc-terms-of-use.html, and https://www.myhesc.com/asc-terms-of-use.html.
If you choose to utilize a specific patient application, please be sure to read the privacy policy associated with that application.
Information We Collect and How
We may collect various types of personal information when you visit our Site, such as the following:
- Identifiers, contact information, and other demographic information (e.g., your name, phone number, and mailing address);
- information that you provide by filling in forms on our Site including appointment request forms or online referral forms (e.g., your primary health insurance, driver’s license, and ID card);
- records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us;
- details of transactions you carry out through our Site and of the fulfillment of your orders;
- information regarding charitable contributions (e.g., payment details and any other information necessary to process a donation or contribution); and
- electronic information about your internet activity (e.g., IP addresses, browsing history, interactions with our Site, information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other online tracking technologies (see below for more information)).
Among other things, the technologies and services that we use to facilitate electronic information collection on our Site may include:
- Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Site.
- Pixels, Web Beacons, and Tracking Scripts. Pages of our Site, or emails to you, may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email, and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity). We use this information to assist us in improving our user experience.
- Google. We use several tools provided by Google, Inc. to collect certain information relating to your use of our Site, such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, and DoubleClick (collectively, "Google"). You can find out more about how Google uses data when you visit our Site by visiting "How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services" (located at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites) and the Google Privacy Policy (located at policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US).
- Microsoft. We use Microsoft Advertising and Bing, services provided by Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”), for advertising purposes and to capture details about your use of the Site. For information about how Microsoft collects or receives information to provide their services to us, please visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement located at https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement.
How We Use and Disclose Your Information
In general, TGH will not disclose your personal information to any third party without your consent, except when required to do so by law. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if we provide your personal information to others, it is to affiliates, service providers, and other third parties that help us provide our services.
We may also use your personal information to:
- provide healthcare services (e.g., confirm appointments and fulfil requests for physician referrals);
- operate, improve, and manage our business (e.g., enforce our rights, prevent fraud, respond to court orders, and for other legal compliance purposes);
- optimize the performance and user experience of our Site (e.g., respond to your questions and requests);
- market and advertise our services to you;
- send you email newsletters;
- conduct research and analysis;
- communicate with you about your account, community events, and surveys; and
- perform any other purpose to which you consent.
Advertising, marketing, and analytics partners such as Google, Microsoft, and other advertising networks may receive and use your personal information to assist us with our advertising and marketing efforts. Sometimes we rely on these partners to help us understand your activity, and (as explained above) those partners may use various trackers to collect information, such as your IP address, device type, operating system, referring URLs, location and pages visited. We also use cookies, web beacons, and similar tools so that we can show you more relevant advertising based on your online activity.
Email Communications, Newsletter, and Related Services
Our Site provides you with the opportunity to receive communications from us and third parties. You can unsubscribe from such communications at any time. You may use the unsubscribe mechanism or link in our marketing emails if you wish to stop receiving marketing emails from us.
Email communications that you send to us via the email links on our Site may be shared with a customer service representative, employee, medical expert, or agent that is most able to address your inquiry. We make every effort to respond in a timely fashion once communications are received. 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 will be accessed or viewed by another internet user while in transit to us.
Your Choices
Third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used for targeted advertising purposes. For example, for information about how you can opt out of receiving targeted advertising from many providers, please visit: optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1/. You can also set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent.
Online Surveys
At times, we survey visitors to our Site. The information from these surveys is used in aggregated, de-identified form to help us improve our Site and understand the needs of our visitors. If survey respondents provide personal information (such as an email address) in a survey, it is shared only with those people who need to see it to respond to the question or request, or with third parties who perform data management services for our Site.
Information for Users Outside the United States
Please be aware that any personal information you submit to our Site will be transferred to, and processed in, the United States and the data protection laws and regulations that apply to your personal information may be different from the laws in your country of residence.
Data Retention and Destruction
We will not retain your personal information for longer than reasonably necessary for the purpose(s) we collected it. The retention period depends on criteria such as the nature of our relationship with you, contractual commitments to you, your practice, or your medical provider, when you last interacted with us (including by accessing our Site), the type of personal information at issue, and legal considerations.
Data Protection
No security is perfect, so we cannot guarantee that the information you provide to us will be 100 percent secure. We do, however, take administrative, technical, and physical measures to protect the information you provide to us.
Do Not Track Signals
Some web browsers permit you to broadcast a signal to websites and online services indicating a preference that they "do not track" your online activities. At this time, we do not respond to web browsers’ Do Not Track signals. You may, however, disable certain tracking (e.g., cookies) by following the instructions in the “Your Choices” section above.
Children
We do not knowingly collect personal information from any child under 13 years old without parental consent, and we do not direct our Site to them. If we become aware that we’ve collected any such data, we will delete it.
Links to External Websites
This Privacy Policy applies only to this Site. This Site contains links to websites that are not managed by TGH or are otherwise external to TGH. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to those websites. Our linking to a website does not imply that we have reviewed or endorse the website or their privacy practices. We encourage you to read the Privacy Policy on any other websites before providing them with personal information.
Certain interactive patient applications may be linked to this website as a convenience for you. If you choose to utilize a specific patient application, please be sure to read the privacy policy associated with that application. The Epic MyChart portal, which offers patients secure messaging to participating practices and access to their medical records, is an example of such a patient application.
Contact Us
For additional information, or to speak with us regarding our data practices, please contact us at:
TGH Corporate Compliance & Privacy Dept.
P.O. Box 1289, Tampa, FL 33601
Phone: (813) 844-4813
Email: Privacy@tgh.org
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Privacy Policy on this page. You are responsible for periodically reviewing this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.
If we make material changes to how we treat your personal information, we will revise the “last updated” date at the bottom of this Privacy Policy or notify you (e.g., by posting a notice to our Site home page). Your continued use of the Site after any changes or revisions to this Policy become effective shall indicate your agreement with the terms of such revised and then-current Policy.
Last Updated
This Privacy Policy was last updated on February 12, 2024.