The team at Faxton-St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH) operates under the following guidelines and policies when dealing with the media. Please contact the Communications & Marketing office at (315) 624-5600 for questions.

To arrange all interviews, please call our Media Relations Specialist at (315) 624-5433. The Media Relations Specialist will make every effort to arrange requested interviews with our physicians, administrators and other caregivers. If the person a reporter requests is not available, we may be able to provide an alternative source.

To protect the privacy of our patients and their families and uphold the law, please notify us if you will be coming to FSLH.

To ensure patient confidentiality, privacy and sensitivity to all of the patients, families and employees at FSLH, reporters, film crews and photographers should always be accompanied by a Communications and Marketing team member while on any of the campuses, unless prior arrangements with the staff are made.

To be photographed or videotaped at FSLH, we ask patients the media interviews or videotapes, or their legal guardian, to sign a Consent to be Photographed, Filmed, Videotaped, Recorded and/or Interviewed and Release from Liability form. We also have a form that media personnel (reporters, photographers, videographers, etc.) are required to sign to further protect the confidentiality of our patient and their families.

To release any confidential information about our patients and because of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), legal guardians must complete an Authorization and Release for the Use and/or Disclosure of Protected Health Information form.

To release a one-word description of our patient's condition to the media, in accordance with HIPAA, the patient must be listed in the hospital directory. (The legal guardian makes this decision at the time the patient registers.) Most health professionals in hospitals use the following terms to describe a patient's condition after a first and last name of the patient is obtained:

• UNDETERMINED
  Patient currently being evaluated.
• GOOD
  Vital signs, such as pulse, temperature and blood pressure 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.
• DECEASED
  Patient has died.
• DISCHARGED OR IS NO LONGER HERE