Prashanth Hospitals (“Prashanth Hospitals”, “We”, “Us”, or “Our”) is committed to respecting the privacy of every person who shares information with us. Your privacy is important to us, and we strive to implement reasonable care and security safeguards to protect the personal and healthcare data we collect from you (“User”, “You”, or “Your”). In this regard, we adhere to the applicable data protection and information technology laws in India, particularly:
- The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA),
- The Information Technology Act, 2000 – Section 43A, and
- The Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011.
This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) governs the collection, storage, processing, access, disclosure, and transfer of your Personal Information (including sensitive personal data and healthcare records) when you visit our hospitals, access our website at https://prashanthhospitals.org/ (“Website”), use the Prashanth Hospitals Patient Mobile Application (“App”), or interact with our digital channels, appointment desks, call centres, or WhatsApp/chatbot services (collectively, “Services”).
1. Access & Information Collected
We collect Personal Information directly from you, through authorized third parties, and automatically through your interactions with our Website and digital platforms.
The categories of information we collect include, but are not limited to:
- Personal Identification Data: Name, age, date of birth, gender, marital status, residential address, emergency contact numbers, email address, and government-issued identification details (where required).
- Medical & Clinical Data: Medical history, symptoms, clinical records, diagnostic and pathology investigation reports, prescriptions, treatment plans, surgical procedure records, and reproductive/fertility healthcare records (where applicable).
- Financial & Billing Information: Payment card details, UPI/net banking transaction references, billing records, insurance policies, and third-party administrator (TPA) claim documents.
- Digital & Technical Data: IP address, browser type, operating system, device identifiers, referring URLs, access logs, chatbot/WhatsApp transcripts, appointment booking queries, and interaction patterns on our Website and App.
- General Interactions: Records of communication with customer care representatives, feedback forms, and voluntary survey responses.
2. Consent
- By accessing our Website, using our App, booking an appointment, checking the consent/opt-in box, or availing healthcare services at any Prashanth Hospitals facility, you freely and expressly consent to the collection, processing, storage, disclosure, and transfer of your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
- You acknowledge that you provide this information voluntarily and understand the purposes for which it will be used. Providing incorrect or fraudulent information may affect clinical diagnosis or delivery of services; Prashanth Hospitals shall not be held liable for losses arising from inaccurate or incomplete information supplied by you.
3. Control Over Your Personal Information & User Rights
- Withdrawal of Consent: You have the right to withdraw your consent to data processing at any point by sending a written request to grievance@prashanthhospitals.org. Upon withdrawal, we reserve the right to limit, restrict, or discontinue services that depend on processing such information.
- Correction & Review: You may review, verify, update, or rectify your Personal Information by contacting your consulting doctor, visiting the hospital records/reception desk, or writing to the Grievance Officer.
- Statutory Limitations: Rights concerning deletion or erasure of clinical records remain subject to mandatory statutory medical record retention timelines under applicable Indian healthcare regulations.
4. How We Collect Personal Information
We gather Personal Information through various channels, including:
- Patient admission, outpatient registration, and billing desks at hospital premises.
- Consultations with doctors, consultants, nursing staff, and allied healthcare professionals.
- Online appointment booking forms, health-check requests, and enquiry forms on our Website.
- The Prashanth Hospitals Patient Mobile Application.
- Inbound and outbound telephone calls, WhatsApp channels, and automated chatbots.
- Diagnostic, imaging, and laboratory booking systems.
- Digital marketing campaigns, lead-generation pages, and cookies on our online platforms.
5. Use of Personal Information
Prashanth Hospitals uses your Personal Information for legitimate clinical, operational, and administrative purposes, including:
- Delivering medical care, consultations, treatments, surgeries, and diagnostic services.
- Scheduling appointments, managing admissions, sending reminders, and sharing diagnostic test results via SMS, WhatsApp, phone, or email.
- Processing billing, payments, insurance verifications, and cashless reimbursement claims.
- Operating, troubleshooting, maintaining, and improving our Website, App, and digital infrastructure.
- Communicating healthcare updates, institutional announcements, wellness packages, and promotional offers (subject to your opt-in preferences).
- Internal administrative recordkeeping, quality audits, clinical reviews, and regulatory reporting.
- Complying with applicable laws, responding to court orders, judicial summons, or lawful requests from health authorities and law enforcement.
- Generating anonymized, non-personally identifiable datasets for clinical study, institutional statistics, and operational analytics.
6. Sharing & Transfer of Personal Information
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for unauthorized commercial gain. We share or transfer your data strictly on a need-to-know basis with:
- Treating physicians, surgeons, nurses, and clinical care teams across Prashanth Hospitals units.
- Diagnostic laboratories, imaging centres, and allied health partners involved in your care plan.
- Insurance providers, TPAs, and corporate sponsors for payment approval and settlement.
- Third-party IT vendors, cloud hosting providers, software developers, and communication partners who operate under strict contractual confidentiality and data security obligations.
- Statutory, judicial, or government authorities whenever mandated by applicable law.
Where data is hosted or processed via secure cloud environments, it may be transferred and stored across secure servers, bound by standard data protection agreements consistent with this Policy.
7. Data Security Safeguards
- We adopt reasonable organizational, technical, and operational security measures to safeguard your Personal Information against unauthorized access, loss, alteration, or disclosure.
- Our security measures include multi-factor authentication (MFA), role-based access controls, firewalls, data encryption protocols, routine system backups, and regular staff confidentiality training.
- While we implement stringent security practices, no electronic transmission over the internet or digital storage can be guaranteed to be 100% immune from security incidents. We advise users to maintain the confidentiality of any user IDs or passwords associated with their patient portal or mobile accounts.
8. Cookies & Digital Tracking
- Our Website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to improve session navigation, analyze site performance, and remember your preferences.
- You can adjust your browser settings to block, limit, or alert you to cookies. Disabling cookies may affect the usability or functionality of certain sections of our Website.
- We do not store unencrypted personally identifiable medical information in tracking cookies.
9. Third-Party Websites & External Links
Our Website or App may provide links, payment gateway integrations, or references to third-party websites for your convenience. Prashanth Hospitals does not endorse and holds no responsibility for the privacy practices, data collection standards, or contents of third-party platforms. We encourage you to review the privacy notices of any external site you visit.
10. Data Retention
Prashanth Hospitals retains your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the clinical and administrative purposes outlined in this Policy, or for such extended periods as required by Indian medical council guidelines, statutory tax laws, and hospital licensing mandates. Once the retention period lapses, records are securely archived, anonymized, or destroyed.
11. Amendments to this Policy
Prashanth Hospitals reserves the right to amend, update, or revise this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect legal, regulatory, or operational updates. The revised version will take effect immediately upon being posted on our official Website with an updated effective date.
12. Grievance Redressal
In accordance with applicable data privacy laws, if you have any questions, concerns, complaints, or grievances regarding the processing, accuracy, or security of your Personal Information, you may contact our designated Grievance Officer at grievance@prashanthhospitals.org