Welcome to the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction (the Center) website. Your personal privacy is one of our top priorities. The purpose of this statement is to provide you, the user, with notice of what information we collect on this website, what we do with the information, to whom it may be disseminated, and how you can access it. The following statement applies only to the use of the Center’s website.
As you navigate the Center’s website, you will see links that, when clicked, will take you to other websites governed by separate privacy policies. We strongly suggest that you read the privacy policies for each website that you visit through a link appearing at this website.
A Privacy Partnership
Your privacy with respect to the use of the Center’s website results from a partnership between the Center and you, the user. We attempt to protect your privacy to the maximum extent possible. However, because some of the information that we receive through this website is subject to the Public Records Law, Massachusetts General Laws c. 66, § 10, we cannot ensure absolute privacy. Therefore, information that you send to us through this site may be subject to disclosure to members of the public under the Public Records Law.
Information Voluntarily Provided by You
This website may collect voluntary information from you, for example, through surveys, feedback forms, subscription sign-ups, or e-mails. Such information may contain personally identifiable information. We use the term “personally identifiable information” to mean any information that could reasonably be used to identify you, including your name, telephone number, e-mail address, etc.
Usage Data and Information Automatically Collected/Stored by this Site
This website employs the use of “Persistent Cookies” (see Glossary for list of defined terms). The purpose of these Persistent Cookies is to collect and aggregate data regarding the site’s visitor activity in order for the Center to continuously evaluate and improve its website services. You may elect to disable the Persistent Cookies. Please be advised that disabling the Persistent Cookies may affect your ability to view or interact with this website.
This site collects and stores your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address (which does not identify you as an individual or entity) indefinitely, as well as information about the date and time of your visit, whether a file you have requested exists, and how many “bytes” of information were transmitted to you over the Web from this site. Through a tool called Google Analytics™, we use your IP address to assess the frequency of visits to this site and the popularity of its various pages and functions. We will not attempt to match any personally identifiable information that you provide to us with your IP address, unless there are reasonable grounds to believe that doing so would provide information that is relevant and material to a criminal investigation. The one exception is that if you fill out information on a third-party online form on this website, we may receive your IP address along with this submission. We would not use this form-related IP address information unless it may be relevant and material to a criminal investigation.
We use Google Analytics to collect information about use of this site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site. We use the information from Google Analytics only to improve this site. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a Persistent Cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google.
Universal Analytics™ is Google’s new operating standard for website data collection, reporting and tracking. It uses a tracking method that utilizes a single cookie which assigns a unique, but not personally identifying, visitor ID that allows tracking of the same user between multiple devices and browsers and is able to import data from online and offline devices.
Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.
Information about Universal Analytics is available at Universal Analytics Upgrade Guide.
Dissemination of Your Personally Identifiable Information
We do not sell any personally identifiable information collected through this website, and there is no direct or online public access to the information. However, once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us related to your use of this website, its dissemination is governed by the Public Records Law, the Fair Information Practices Act (Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 66A), Center’s enabling statute (Massachusetts General Laws c. 12C, § 15), and other applicable laws and regulations. For this reason, part or all of the information you send us may be provided to a member of the public in response to a public records request. There are types of information, such as credit card numbers, TIN, username, or password that are exempt from disclosure by the Fair Information Practices Act. For more information on types of data that are exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Law, please read the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Public Records Law.
E-mails or other communication you send us will be provided to a member of the public in response to a public records request unless the Public Records Law, the Center’s enabling statute, or other applicable law provides an exemption. In addition, the information that you voluntarily submit through e-mails will be disclosed only to the Center and other Commonwealth employees or officials, or those under contract with the Commonwealth, with a “need to know” for purposes of fulfilling their job responsibilities. The information will be used for such purposes as answering your questions, responding to any requests for assistance, generating summary statistics about usage, auditing applications and detecting fraud, aiding in the planning, design and development of the Center’s website, the Mass.Gov website, and fulfilling the Commonwealth’s legal obligations.
Your Access and Opportunity to Correct
The Public Records Law and the Fair Information Practices Act provide you certain rights to get information about you that is in our records. To learn more about the circumstances under which you can obtain and correct this information, please click on the above references to these laws.
Security
Because information sent to the Commonwealth is typically not encrypted, except as otherwise provided, you should not send messages containing information that you consider highly sensitive to this website. In accordance with M.G.L. c. 93H, and other applicable state or federal laws and regulations, standard security measures are used to ensure that information provided by you, including your personally identifiable information, is not lost, misused, altered, or unintentionally destroyed. Software to monitor network traffic is used to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage to this site. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.
Privacy Statement Changes
The Center will post changes to this Privacy Statement at least thirty (30) days before any such changes take effect. After any such changes take effect, all new information collected, if any, will be subjected to the terms of the new statement.
Contact Information
All inquiries, notices, claims of copyright infringement, or complaints of any other kind should be directed to:
The Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety
501 Boylston Street, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617-701-8271
Email: info@BetsyLehmanCenterMA.gov
Disclaimer Notice
While the Center strives to make the information on this website as timely and accurate as possible, the Center makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this website and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this site. No warranty of any kind, implied, express or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third-party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to this website or is links to other Internet resources.
The information appearing on this website is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, financial, health care or other advice to any individual or entity. No attorney-client relationship is created by your use of this website or by any communication made with the Center.
In any situation where the official printed publications of the Center or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts differ from the text contained in this site (or its links to other Commonwealth website sources), the official printed publications take precedence.
Reference in the Center’s website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public, and does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Center.
Glossary
Cookie(s): Cookies are files that a website can place on your computer. A cookie file contains unique information that a website can use to track such things as your password, lists of webpages you have visited, and the date when you last looked at a specific webpage, or to identify your session at a particular website. A cookie file allows the website to recognize you as you click through pages on the site and when you later revisit the site. A website can use cookies to “remember” your preferences, and to record your browsing behavior on the Web. Although you can prevent websites from placing cookies on your computer by using your browser’s preference menu, disabling cookies may affect your ability to view or interact with some websites.
Internet Protocol Address (IP Address): An IP address is a series of numbers that identifies each computer and machine connected to the Internet. An IP address enables a server on a computer network to send you the file that you have requested on the Internet. The IP address disclosed to us may identify the computer from which you are accessing the Internet, or a server owned by your Internet Service Provider. Because it is machine-specific, rather than person-specific, an IP address is not, in and of itself, personally identifiable information.
Persistent Cookie(s): Persistent cookies are cookies stored on a computer indefinitely so that a website can identify the user during subsequent visits.