All health records and communications between you and Student Health and Counseling Services are confidential.
Release of Information
Your permission must be obtained in writing before any information can be shared with any person not directly involved in your care, except where required by law.
Examples of the exceptions required by law include reporting cases of child or elder abuse and cases of sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases in order to protect public health.
Separation from your academic pursuits
Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) providers practice only at SHCS and not in positions in the university in which they would evaluate or grade students in their academic programs.
SHCS also has its own electronic medical record system that is totally separate from the system used by the UCSF Medical Center. All care provided at SHCS is documented in your SHCS EMR chart which is accessible only to SHCS staff – no faculty involved in your education or students have access.
Right to Privacy
You have a right to privacy. Discussion, examination, treatment, and consultation with other providers should be conducted in private. If you do not feel the situation is private enough, you have the right to request more privacy.
Counseling and Psychological Services
Student records for which SHCS is the custodian are governed by FERPA. Non- student records are governed by HIPAA.
Confidentiality is the cornerstone of counseling and psychological services. You have a legal right to privacy and your written permission must be obtained before SHCS will release information to anyone outside of our clinic, with only limited legal and ethical exceptions such as child or elder abuse.
Health and counseling records are maintained separately from any other records of the University – including academic, educational and job placement records. Within the SHCS electronic medical record, your health and counseling records are maintained separately. This means you would need to specify with any release if you wanted counseling records released. During the first visit with a counselor - clients are given an informed consent form which they review with their counselor who can answer any questions pertaining to confidentiality or privacy.