The University of Kansas Medical Center is committed to ensuring the privacy and security of patient and clinical research participant health information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) strengthens our commitment to our patients.

The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services enforces the regulations and imposes penalties on institutions that do not make a good-faith effort on privacy and security.

HIPAA requires covered entities like the University of Kansas Medical Center to follow certain rules to protect the privacy of patients' health information. For instance, University of Kansas Medical Center employees are not allowed to access information on patients unless they need the information to perform their jobs. Employees receive training on how to protect patient information, whether that information is spoken, on paper, or kept on a computer. Compliance with the HIPAA privacy rule is important to continuing our tradition of patient confidentiality.

The Privacy Program defines, develops, maintains, and implements policies and processes that enable consistent, effective privacy practices which minimize risk and ensure the confidentiality of protected health information (PHI) and individually identifiable research information.

In coordination with the Office of Information Security and the Office of General Counsel, the Privacy Program tracks, investigates, performs breach risk assessment for, and reports when necessary, inappropriate access and disclosure of PHI or individually identifiable research data.

The Program Director serves as a liaison to the Human Research Protection Program and University of Kansas Health System regarding issues involving use of University of Kansas Health System data.

More information and guidance on the policies and procedures related to HIPAA compliance at University of Kansas Medical Center can be found on the KUMC intranet.

Note: You will need to login with your KUMC username and password to access the resources on the Intranet.

The University of Kansas Health System respects and values patients' roles in making decisions about their health and are committed to protecting patient rights.

Questions or concerns about HIPAA? Contact Patient Relations, 913-588-1290.

Contact Us:

Christopher Griffith
Director, Privacy Program