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E-mail Terms of Use

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1. RISKS ENTAILED WITH THE USE OF E-MAIL AND YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

At the discretion of UPMC and upon your agreement to the terms outlined hereunder, you may use e-mail to communicate with UPMC. These e-mails could contain information on your state of health. If you decide to use e-mail to communicate with UPMC, you should be aware of the following risks and of your related responsibilities:

  1. Internet is not a safe environment therefore unauthorized people could intercept, read, and possibly modify e-mails sent to or received by UPMC.
  2. You are accountable for protecting your e-mail account, your password, and your computer from any unauthorized access.
  3. E-mails can be used to spread viruses that might forward messages to unwanted third parties. For this reason, it is your responsibility to install and update anti-virus software on your personal computer.
  4. E-mails can be copied, printed, or forwarded by the persons to whom they are sent. We suggest you pay maximum attention to the name of the person sending the communications.

2. CONDITIONS FOR THE USE OF E-MAIL

By opting to use e-mail to communicate with UPMC, you agree that:

  1. UPMC staff receiving your e-mails may forward them for diagnosis, treatment, reimbursement, and other related reasons. As such, UPMC staff members other than the direct recipient may have access to your e-mails. Access shall in any case be granted only to authorized UPMC staff involved your care. UPMC will not forward your e-mails to independent third parties without your prior written consent, except as authorized or required by law.
  2. While UPMC staff will try its best to read and reply to your e-mails as soon as possible, you may however not receive an answer immediately. For this reason, please do not use e-mails for urgent communications or when you require quick feedback.
  3. If your e-mails require an answer and you do not receive feedback within reasonable time, you will need to contact UPMC with other means of communication.
  4. Please carefully consider using e-mails to share particularly sensitive clinical information such as, for example, information regarding sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS/HIV, mental health, disability, or substance abuse.
  5. Please carefully word your e-mails so that the information you are providing can be clearly understood by the recipients. Please avoid writing lengthy e-mails.
  6. You are accountable for correcting any wrong or unclear information.
  7. UPMC reserves the right to file your e-mails in your medical record.
  8. It is your responsibility to follow the indications and/or schedule an appointment if recommended by UPMC.
  9. UPMC may use means of communication other than e-mail to contact you. Additionally, UPMC may decide that it is not in your best interest to continue to communicate with you by e-mail.
  10. We recommend you refrain from using a corporate computer account to communicate with UPMC as your employer could reserve the right to access your e-mail account.
  11. Should you decide to use a corporate account to communicate with UPMC, you accept the risk that your employer could access e-mails sent by UPMC. Furthermore, by accepting these conditions, you authorize UPMC to send all communications to the e-mail address you provided, until a different address is provided or until you notify your will to no longer receive communications from UPMC.

3. INSTRUCTIONS

Please follow these instructions:

  1. Immediately inform UPMC staff if you are using a new e-mail address.
  2. Only send e-mails to the addresses indicated by UPMC.
  3. Write your name and ID data in the body of the e-mail.
  4. Write the reason of your e-mail in the "Subject" line to allow for it to be appropriately managed (e.g. prescription, appointment, consult, invoicing, etc.).
  5. Before you send your e-mail, please check that it is written clearly and that you have included all the relevant information/requests.
  6. If you wish to withdraw your consent to communication via e-mail, please send a message to all UPMC staff with whom you have been in contact with.

4. PATIENT ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND APPROVAL

UPMC will use all reasonable means to protect the confidentiality of your clinical information sent by e-mail. However, because of the risks outlined above, UPMC cannot guarantee the confidentiality of e-mail communications. UPMC shall not be held accountable in the event of inappropriate use of e-mails by you or third parties. Also, UPMC shall not be held accountable for any improper disclosure of your clinical information not ascribable to willful misconduct by UPMC staff.