Privacy, Security, & Notices

• Web Site Mission
• Governing Policy
• Web Site Privacy and Security
• Privacy Advisory for Solicitations
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• Web Site Ratings
• Accessibility (.swf files)
• Public Affairs Officer
• Links Disclaimer
• Research Disclaimer
  

Web Site Mission

This is a World Wide Web site for official information about the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) in Bethesda, Maryland as well as the WRNMMC Branch Clinics in outlying areas. It's mission is to support the Department of Navy as well as all of the uniformed services by providing official, timely and accurate information about patient and visitor services, graduate medical education, research, the command, and the facility's history. Other current information, news, and health education are also provided as a public service to the general public.

Web Site Policy

Privacy and Security

This is a U.S. Government Web Site.

All information on this site is public domain and may be distributed or copied unless otherwise specified. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this Web site are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
Except for authorized law enforcement investigation and to maintain required correspondence files, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs* are used to simply determine how many users are accessing the site, which pages are the most popular, and, from time to time, from which top level domain users are coming. This data is scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration guidelines.

*Below is an example of the information collected based on a standard request for a World Wide Web document:

136.205.11.176 - - [18/Jun/2001:11:24:03 -0500] "GET /navpalib/ships/carriers/ HTTP/1.1" 200 2575 Mozilla 3.0 www.altavista.digital.com

• 136.205.11.176 — this is the host name (or IP address)
  associated with the requester (you as the visitor). In this case, the requester is coming from a Navy address. Depending on the requester’s method of network connection, the host name (or IP address) may or may not identify a specific computer. Connections via many Internet Service Providers assign different IP addresses for each session, so the host name identifies only the ISP. The host name (or IP address) will identify a specific computer if that computer has a fixed IP address.
• [18/Jun/2001:11:24:03 -0500] -- this is the date and time of the request
• GET -- Type of request. You requested a page or supporting document.
• /navpalib/ships/carriers/ HTTP/1.1 -- this is the location of the requested file on the Navy’s Web site.
• 200 -- this is the status code - 200 is OK - the request was filled
• 2575 -- this is the size of the requested file in bytes
• Mozilla 3.0 -- this identifies the type of browser software used to access the page, which indicates what design parameters to use in constructing the pages
• www.altavista.digital.com - this indicates the last site the person visited, which indicates how people find the Navy’s Web site.

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Privacy Advisory for Solicitations

We will not obtain personally identifying information about you when you visit our site unless you choose to provide such information to us. If you choose to send email to the site webmaster or submit an online feedback form, any contact information that you provide will be solely used to respond to your request and not stored.

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Web site rating

The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has rated it's web site using Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) and RSACi coding as the following:

• Chat
  • No chat facilities
• Language
  • No potentially offensive language
• Nudity and sexual material
  • Nudity or sexual material may, but is not known to be present
  • Nudity or sexual material appears in a medical context and is suitable for young children
• Other topics
  • None of the topics in this section
• Violence
  • Violence may, but is not known to be present
  • Violence appears in a medical context and is suitable for young children

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Accessibility

Accessibility Help & Information

Help Us Help You: We are continually working to ensure that this web site is accessible to everyone, in compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 USC 794d). If you find a problem that prevents access, please contact us by sending an e-mail to the WRNMMC Webmaster, webmaster@bethesda.med.navy.mil or calling to (301) 295-5625. Information that cannot be accessed will be provided in an accessible format.

Non-HTML Files: While all attempts are being done to provide complete HTML content some Non-HTML files (such as PDF, XLS, DOC, SWF) may be used on this site. You may wish to download a free PDF reader/viewer from the web. Free SWF file accessibility plug-ins are available for the major screen-reader software suites. Find out more from Macromedia. Major software companies are also providing additional resources through the web to assist with accessibility. Free downloadable tools are also available to assist visually impaired users through out the web. (No endorsement of any product, system or warranty is implied or expressed. Macromedia is named due to being the only producer of Flash multimedia technology.)

The criteria for web-based technology and information are based on access guidelines developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. Many of these provisions ensure access for people with vision impairments who rely on various assistive products to access computer-based information, such as screen readers, which translate what's on a computer screen into automated audible output, and refreshable Braille displays.

Certain conventions, such as verbal tags or identification of graphics and format devices, like frames, are necessary so that these devices can "read" them for the user in a sensible way. The standards do not prohibit the use of web site graphics or animation. Instead, the standards aim to ensure that such information is also available in an accessible format.

Generally, this means use of text labels or descriptors for graphics and certain format elements. (HTML code already provides an "Alt Text" tag for graphics which can serve as a verbal descriptor for graphics). This section also addresses the usability of multimedia presentations, image maps, style sheets, scripting languages, applets and plug-ins, and electronic forms. Within this web site, you may come across images in which the alternative text does not give any information, due to the image being placed in the background.

In addition, an effort must be made to allow the user to decide whether or not to "view" repetitive links, which would be "read" to them on each page. If this was not taken into account, web pages "viewed" through the devices mentioned above would become tedious and difficult to navigate for the user.

The standards apply to Federal web sites but not to private sector web sites (unless a site is provided under contract to a Federal agency, in which case only that web site or portion covered by the contract would have to comply). Accessible sites offer significant advantages that go beyond access.

Web accessibility for all...this is the goal of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Web Team.

If you have a question or would like any content in a different form for accessibility reasons, please contact the Webmaster by following this link.

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Public Affairs Officer

This site is maintained by the WRNMMC Web Team, Code 5280, Commercial/DSN 301-295-5625, and is approved by the PAO, Chris Walz, Public Affairs Officer, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center & Navy Medicine National Capital Area Region, Code 00A0 Commercial/DSN 301-295-5727.

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Disclaimer for External Links

The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of the Navy or the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities such as military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) sites, the United States Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy or the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) do not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this DoD web site.

Research and Professional Information

Due to the fact that the mission of WRNMMC includes an educational mission, unclassified dissertations or professional papers may be published to this site for the purpose of peer review, exchange of professional information, or the exchange of ideas. In those cases, the following disclaimer is provided:

"The material contained herein is made available for the purpose of peer review and discussion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense."

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