Press Room

We realize that the media is our best partner in spreading the word about our efforts to improve the health of the communities we serve.

Our team is committed to working with the media in the spirit of transparency and the free exchange of information. The information below is a helpful guide to ensuring members of the media have the information and access they need.

Patients and their medical information are protected by the federal Health Insurance Privacy and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, as well as other federal and state laws and organizational policies.

Patients and their loved ones may choose not to be included in the hospital directory. If they choose not to be in the directory, no information on their condition, status or other information will be available. 

No information will be available for patients who are not in the hospital directory. For the staff researching the patient’s condition, it will appear that the patient is not in the hospital at all. Our team will simply have no information on that patient — including confirmation of whether the patient is at a facility, has been transferred or has been discharged.

• The patient’s full name – Patients are admitted by their full name — not nicknames — and we will need a full name to locate a patient’s information.
• The proper spelling of the patient’s name – Proper spelling is necessary for accurate search results; otherwise, the Tanner staff member searching the hospital directory will find no information on the patient.
• The hospital to which the patient has been admitted – Please be prepared to specify if the patient is admitted at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica, Higgins General Hospital in Bremen or Tanner Medical Center/East Alabama in Wedowee. 

Patient information will not be released for patients at Willowbrooke at Tanner, the inpatient behavioral health facility.

If a patient has chosen to be listed in the hospital directory and you have the patient’s correct name, the hospital will provide a one-word description of the patient’s description. These descriptions are based on American Hospital Association guidelines:

• Good: Vital signs are stable and within normal limits; the patient is conscious and comfortable, and all indicators are excellent.
• Fair: Vital signs are stable and within normal limits; the patient is conscious but may be uncomfortable and indicators are favorable.
• Serious: Vital signs may be unstable and not within normal limits; the patient is acutely ill and indicators are questionable.
• Critical: Vital signs are unstable and not within normal limits; the patient may be unconscious, and indicators are unfavorable.

The safety and privacy of our patients is always paramount at Tanner. 

We ask that members of the media — including newspapers, digital publications, film crews, broadcast media and others — make a request of the Tanner Marketing Strategy and Planning department whenever they intend to be on the campus of a Tanner hospital, medical office or outpatient facility. 

Access to certain areas of Tanner’s facilities may be restricted as necessary to protect patient care and privacy. 

Restrictions also may be placed on filming or photography to ensure patient privacy (i.e., avoiding photographs of computer monitors at work stations that might display patient information).

Access to Tanner facilities is protected and enforced by Tanner Security.

We comply with federal laws to ensure the privacy of the patients in our care. Interviews with patients are permitted under certain circumstances.

• Clinical Condition – The clinicians caring for the patient must make the determination that the patient is well enough to be interviewed, and that an interview will not cause the patient’s condition to worsen or slow the patient’s recovery. 
• Wishes of the Patient and Family – If the patient does not want to be interviewed or wishes to be interviewed by one news organization and not another, we will accommodate the patient’s wishes. We discourage contact with the loved ones of patients, as patients and their families may share personal information with loved ones that they would not want divulged to the media.
• Tanner Staff Presence – For interviews that take place on Tanner property, a designated Tanner representative must be present. In instances of interviews with patients, this ensures that the wishes of the patient and their loved ones are respected and provides for improved interactions between patients, their loved ones and the media.