Important Notices Regarding This Website
Initial Release (May 2004)
www.georgiaombudsman.org

This website is designed to make it easier to interact with Georgia's Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (the GLTCOP). We offer you the opportunity to ask questions, request information, or provide comments in as secure a manner as possible, with respect for your privacy. We also provide policies, educational materials, and services to meet the needs of our customers.

Content: This website provides general information; it may not address your specific situation. We strongly encourage you to contact us or other appropriate entities to address your specific situation.

Any errors or omissions should be reported to us for investigation. The Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman (OSLTCO) expressly denies any warranty, implied, expressed, or statutory, as to the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from computer virus. The GLTCOP, employees or agents shall not be liable for damages or losses of any kind arising out of or in connection with the use of information, including, but not limited to, damages or losses caused by reliance upon the accuracy or timeliness of any such information, or damages incurred.

Legal or Financial Information: The materials and information related to legal or financial concerns are not intended as a substitute for legal or financial advice and representation obtained through legal or financial counsel. You should seek counsel to address your specific situation.

Endorsement: We strongly encourage consumers and families to thoroughly investigate practices, documents, values, viewpoints, and agendas before making long-term care decisions. Ombudsmen provide general information about choosing long-term care but do not recommend particular providers.

Links: Our website employs hypertext or links to other Internet sites owned or maintained by other entities, for convenience and information purposes only. A link either by its inclusion or exclusion from this site does not constitute an endorsement of content, viewpoint, opinions, policies, products or services or representation of the copyright or trademark compliance or legality of such material. Users who proceed to external websites do so at their own risk and are subject to the terms and conditions of those sites, including but not limited to privacy practices. External sites may use cookies, collect data, and use the data in ways that we would not. The OSLTCO specifically disclaims any and all liability from damages that may result from the accessing of a third-party site or from reliance upon such information.

The OSLTCO provides links at its discretion. We always appreciate information regarding new links which may enhance the quality of this website. A link will be removed if: link no longer points to the information that was intended; information is inaccurate or not trustworthy; access to the information has become difficult; link is inactive or unavailable.

Do not link to individual graphics or tables within our pages or make any similar effort to place the downloading burden on our servers

Copyright, Trademark and Distribution Information: The OSLTCO asserts its copyright on all content it has created and reserves all other rights under relevant copyright statutes.

Our purpose in making any copyrighted material available online is to advance understanding of long-term care issues and we believe this constitutes a "fair use." Anyone may view, copy or distribute material non-commercially, provided it is unaltered and credit is given to the source (unless a restriction on free use exists on material). All trademarks, service marks or copyrights appearing on this website and linked websites are held by their respective owners. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The OSLTCO makes no warranty that materials contained herein are free of Copyright or Trademark claims or other restrictions or limitations on free use or display. Notice of claims of copyright infringement should be directed to Becky A. Kurtz, Esq., Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, Two Peachtree St. NW, 9th Floor, Atlanta, GA 30303-3142.

Online Choices and Security of Information: Personal information sent via the Internet can be intercepted. You may choose not to submit sensitive, personal information through any website.

If you wish to make an inquiry to the OSLTCO of a confidential nature, communicating to us by a method other than the Internet will help us better ensure confidentiality of sensitive information. You may telephone the toll-free number or make contact by fax, face-to-face visit, or regular mail.

The OSLTCO is committed to the security of the information that is either available from or collected by this website. The submission of information via this website occurs via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protocol from your personal computer to the computer processing your request. The processing computers are located behind a secure firewall. No system, however, can be guaranteed to be completely safe.

This system and equipment are subject to monitoring to ensure proper performance of applicable security features or procedures. If monitoring reveals possible evidence of criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to Law Enforcement Personnel.

Personal Information and Aggregate Data Collected and How It Is Used: The privacy, confidence, and trust of individuals who visit the website are important to us. No personal information is collected unless provided voluntarily. If you choose to provide information relating to an identified or identifiable individual, by filling out a form and submitting it to us through our website, we will use that information to respond to your message and possibly to analyze trends. This may include non-text formats submitted in addition to text submitted.

The OSLTCO does not plan to divulge information collected to anyone outside of the GLTCOP. The information collected is subject to the same controls and uses as that collected by the GLTCOP in face-to-face visits, telephone calls, and other forms of communication, respecting complainant confidentiality. Personal and confidential information provided to the GLTCOP may not be disclosed without the express permission of the individual providing the information. Federal and state laws (42 U.S.C. § 3058g(d), O.C.G.A. § 31-8-58; see also 42 U.S.C. §§ 3058d(a)(6)(C), 3058i(e)(2); 45 C.F.R. § 1321.51) protect the confidential nature of the relationship between the Ombudsman and the long-term care resident and others with complaints regarding long-term care. If you believe that your personal information is being used for a purpose other than what was intended when submitted, you may contact us.

The OSLTCO will provide comprehensive and timely responses to correspondence in order of priority but will not respond to commercial e-mail or junk e-mail. We will transmit responses to you electronically with private or confidential data on an individual.

The OSLTCO website may collect some or all of the following: name of your domain; IP address; date and time of access to our site, type of browser, type of operating system; Internet address of the website from which you link directly to our site; pages you visit within the site; and links you make to other websites through the site. This information is not collected for commercial marketing purposes. We use this information only to help us make our site more useful, for the number of visitors, and to learn about the technology our visitors use.

Cookies: Our web pages / applications do not employ cookies. We will post a revision here before implementing the use of cookies.

Changes: Revisions to "Important Notices Regarding This Website" will be posted to this location. We will also post the date of revision. This version is the Initial Release (May, 2004).

Thank you for visiting. Please contact us for any further information.