Norton Children’s Media Information Center

Patient Condition Reports

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) established guidelines on releasing information about patients. Norton Children’s Hospital and Norton Healthcare follow 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.