On this page
What this page covers
This page explains the cookies and similar technologies used on this website, what each one is for, and how to change your mind. It sits alongside our privacy policy and our HIPAA notice, which cover your health information more broadly. Nothing on this page applies to the information you give us as a patient. Your medical record is governed by HIPAA and our HIPAA notice, not by this policy.
What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to keep. Some are read only by us. Others are read by companies whose tools we use, such as Google, and those are the ones we ask permission for.
The three categories we use
Strictly necessary. These make the site work. They keep the site secure, remember the cookie choice you made so we do not ask again on every page, and let the appointment request form submit. These are always on, because without them the site does not function. They do not identify you to anyone outside this practice. Analytics. These count visits and show us which pages people find useful. Our page on fatty liver disease, for example, is read far more often than our page on lactose intolerance, so it deserves more attention. We use this to improve the site. It is switched off until you agree. Advertising. These let us measure whether an ad we paid for actually brought someone to the site, and let us show our ads on other platforms. Switched off until you agree.
A restriction we apply on purpose
We do not run advertising cookies on our most sensitive pages: the liver program, hemorrhoid treatment, weight care, our procedure and endoscopy pages, and colon cancer screening. Advertising cookies do run on the rest of the site, including our pages about individual digestive conditions, if you have agreed to them. The reason for drawing the line where we have is straightforward. An advertising cookie on a page tells an advertising company that someone at your address read that page. For the areas listed above we do not think that is a reasonable thing to do with a person's interest in their own health, whatever the law happens to permit at any given time, so we switch it off there regardless of what you have agreed to. Agreeing to advertising cookies lets us measure whether our advertising works on the rest of the site. It does not switch the restriction above off. We also switch off the automatic matching feature offered by social advertising tools, which would otherwise attempt to read details out of a form you fill in. It is disabled site-wide.
Who else can see this data
Google: analytics and advertising measurement, when you have agreed to those categories. Google's own privacy terms apply to what they collect. Meta (Facebook and Instagram): advertising measurement only, and only on non-clinical pages, and only if you have agreed to advertising cookies. We do not sell your information, and we do not share your health information with advertising companies.
Changing your mind
Select Cookie settings in the footer of any page. You can turn a category on or off at any time, and the change takes effect immediately. You can also clear cookies in your browser settings, which removes your stored choice. We will then ask again on your next visit. If you block all cookies in your browser, the site will still work, but it will ask about cookies each time because it cannot remember that you already answered.
Do Not Track and global privacy signals
Browsers that send a global privacy signal are treated as a refusal of the analytics and advertising categories.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to accept cookies to use this site?
No. Every condition page, the appointment request form, and our phone numbers and locations all work exactly the same if you reject everything except the strictly necessary cookies. Rejecting is one click, in the same place and the same size as accepting.
Will you know what condition I was reading about?
If you agree to analytics, we see that a page was viewed and how often, as a count that is not tied to your name and not shared with advertisers. If you agree to advertising cookies, an advertising company can see that this browser visited one of our condition pages; it cannot see your name, and it never sees anything from our liver, hemorrhoid, weight-care, procedure or screening pages, where advertising cookies are switched off entirely. You can decline advertising cookies and everything on the site still works.
Does this affect my medical records?
No. Your medical record and anything you tell our staff are protected health information under HIPAA and covered by our HIPAA notice. Cookies on a public website are a separate matter and never touch your chart.
What happens to the appointment request form?
The form is handled by our own site and sent to our staff. It is not fed to an advertising tool, and the automatic form-reading features offered by advertising platforms are switched off site-wide.
How long do these cookies last?
Your cookie choice is remembered for 180 days, then we ask again. Analytics and advertising cookies set by Google or Meta have their own lifetimes, set by those companies and described in their privacy policies.
Questions about this policy
Call the Main Clinic at (479) 242-2888, or request an appointment if you would rather talk to us in person. We see patients from Fort Smith, Van Buren, Greenwood, Alma, Barling and Charleston, and from Poteau and Sallisaw in eastern Oklahoma.