Media Information Center
Patient Condition Reports
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) established guidelines on releasing information about patients. Norton Healthcare follows these guidelines and will provide information to the media as allowed. The majority of the time this will be a one-word condition report: undetermined, good, fair, serious or critical. The death of a patient will be reported only after sufficient time has passed to notify the family.
Patients have the right to opt out of release of information. In this case, no condition report will be given, including confirmation that the patient is in a Norton Healthcare facility. In addition, no condition report will be given when children are in custody of Child Protective Services.
To learn more about how medical information may be used and disclosed, and how you can access health information, read the HIPAA notice of privacy practices.
To receive a condition report, members of the media must have the correct spelling of the patient’s first and last names.
Patient condition report definitions
The majority of the time, the media will be provided a one-word condition report:
- Undetermined: Patient is awaiting assessment
- Good: Vital signs are stable and within normal limits. Patient is conscious and comfortable. Indicators are excellent.
- Fair: Vital signs are stable and within normal limits. Patient is conscious but may be uncomfortable. Indicators are favorable.
- Serious: Vital signs may be unstable and not within normal limits. Patient is acutely ill. Indicators are questionable.
- Critical: Vital signs are unstable and not within normal limits. Patient may not be conscious. Indicators are unfavorable.
Media Experts
Norton Healthcare has specialists who can speak on cutting-edge medical topics, trends and procedures in the region. If you’d like to interview one of our physicians or specialists on any of the topics below, call our media relations team at (502) 629-2999.
Pediatric Care
- Adolescent gynecology
- Anesthesiology
- Cardiology/cardiothoracic surgery
- Child advocacy (safety, burns, abuse, nutrition/fitness)
- Concussions
- Diabetes
- Drug dependance in newborns (neonatal abstinence syndrome)
- Emergency medicine
- Endocrinology
- General pediatrics
- General surgery
- High-risk pregnancy
- Infectious diseases
- Neonatal medicine
- Neurology
- Neurosurgery
- Neurosurgical epilepsy program
- New cancer treatment technology and research
- Oncology
- Orthopedics
- Pathology
- Pharmacology
- Psychology
- Radiology
- Sports health
- Toxicology (poison)
- Urology
Adult Care
- Anesthesiology
- Cardiology
- Cardiothoracic surgery
- Diabetes
- Emergency medicine
- General practice/family medicine/internal medicine
- Hand surgery
- Health policy and legislation
- Infectious diseases
- Interventional radiology
- Neurology (ALS, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis)
- Neurosurgery (epilepsy, brain injuries, tumors)
- New cancer treatment technology and research
- Obstetrics/gynecology, including high-risk maternal-fetal medicine
- Oncology
- Orthopedics
- Pathology
- Pulmonology
- Radiology
- Spine surgery
- Sports health
- Urology
- Weight management