General Terms and Conditions (GTC) for patients

General terms and conditions for participation in care management by Ambulanzpartner Soziotechnologie APST GmbH as well as for the use of the Ambulanzpartner care portal and the applications ALS App and SMA App

Published on 1 January 2020, V.3.3

For the sake of readability, the simultaneous use of masculine and feminine forms is avoided. However, all personal pronouns apply equally to both genders.

People with chronic illnesses can have high and complex needs for outpatient medical aids and supplies, as well as medication and nutritional care. A critical aspect of outpatient treatment is the coordination of necessary care and the coordination of the partners involved. Ambulanzpartner addresses these needs and embodies digitally supported care management. The Ambulanzpartner concept (hereinafter „AP Concept“) combines coordinative services with the digital management platform „Ambulanzpartner Care Portal“ (hereinafter „APVP“).

Ambulanzpartner Soziotechnologie APST GmbH (hereinafter „APST“) offers care management services that improve coordination, communication, and networking between patients (and their families), medical partners (doctors, nursing services), drug therapy providers (pharmacies, manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices), and providers of medical devices and assistive devices. The APVP internet platform at  www.ambulanzpartner.de  is the communication and management platform that digitally supports care coordination. It links an electronic care record with digital process control for the purposes of care management and health services research. The „ALS App“ and the „SMA App“ are mobile software applications that enable patients to participate in surveys, evaluate disease progression and treatment, and record laboratory results.

The APST collaborates with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin to provide the APVP internet portal and related services. The APST and Charité cooperate on hosting the APVP, including data protection and data security, as well as for the purposes of health services research.

1. Scope

1.1 These General Terms and Conditions of Use (GTC) apply to the use of APST services, the use of the APVP internet platform and the associated mobile software applications ALS App and SMA App by patients or their legal representatives.

1.2 APST’s services support patients (and their families) with chronic, serious, or rare illnesses who require healthcare services or medical devices, including assistive devices, remedies, medicines, or nursing services (hereinafter referred to as „providers“). Patients are authorized as users of the platform and receive individual user accounts. The legal basis for this arises from the individual agreements made upon conclusion of the contract and these General Terms and Conditions. The use of the APVP software product by medical partners (doctors, social services) and providers is also permitted and is regulated in separate General Terms and Conditions for Medical Partners and Healthcare Partners.

1.3 By registering with APST, the patient (or legal representative) agrees to the General Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy. APST reserves the right to amend these General Terms and Conditions as necessary – particularly for factual and/or legal reasons – by indicating these reasons. The amended terms and conditions will be sent to the patient (or legal representative) by email one month before they come into effect to the email address last provided to APST and saved on the APVP. If the patient does not object within 14 days of receiving the email, the amended terms and conditions are deemed accepted and govern the future contractual relationship between the patient and APST. If the patient (or their legal representative) objects, the contract will end in accordance with the provisions of Section 4.2.

1.4 The patient may not transfer the rights and obligations arising from this contract. Assignment of rights is excluded.

2. Subject matter and services

2.1 APST provides services that facilitate care coordination and networking between patients, medical partners, and providers. These services are collectively referred to as „care management“ and include the following components.

• Care coordination
• Data management
• Document management
• Complaint management
• Patient reviews

The components of supply management can be used together or individually. A detailed description of the services can be found in the „Service Description“ document.

2.2 APST provides patients with the APVP internet platform for optional use. APVP is a structured database with an associated internet portal that allows for the electronic capture, storage, and processing of patient- and care-related data, as well as digital support of care processes. Access to the portal ( www.ambulanzpartner.de ) is via a personal username and password combination. These access data also enable patient authentication in the ALS app and SMA app. The features of the digital platform, the data collected, user roles and authorizations, and the terms of use can be found in the service description.

2.3 The APST provides the patient with a mobile software application that enables participation in surveys and the evaluation of disease progression and treatments (so-called ALS App and SMA App).

2.4 The APST supports patients, legal representatives of patients, and other users authorized by the patient in using the APVP. The APST offers a free telephone introduction prior to using the portal and, if necessary, additional free training sessions, which are agreed upon individually.

2.5 Medical partners and providers will be granted access to, process, and use the patient’s data with the patient’s written consent. The patient is free to revoke an initially given consent at any time, without giving reasons, with immediate effect. APST ensures that the corresponding consent form complies with all legal requirements, particularly data protection requirements.

2.6 The internet connection and the web browser are not part of the contractual relationship between the patient and APST.

3. Conclusion of contract

3.1 The use of the services listed in 2.1, as well as the APVP software, ALS App, and SMA App, requires the conclusion of a user agreement. This contractual relationship is established upon comprehensive patient information and the signing of a consent form. The patient will receive or be given the following documents:

• Patient information (“Service Description”) for care management by Ambulanzpartner Soziotechnologie APST GmbH and for the use of the Ambulanzpartner care portal
• Data protection declaration for healthcare management and healthcare research by Ambulanzpartner Soziotechnologie APST GmbH and the use of the Ambulanzpartner healthcare portal
• Declaration of consent to participate in healthcare management and healthcare research by Ambulanzpartner Soziotechnologie APST GmbH and to use the Ambulanzpartner healthcare portal
• Registration on the Ambulanzpartner care portal for relatives (if applicable)

The patient completes the required information (address, email address) on the consent form. By signing the consent form in the signature field, the patient declares their consent to the General Terms and Conditions, the Data Protection Policy, and the Service Description, including the terms of use set forth therein. The patient sends the signed consent form by mail or email (with the signed document attached) to the following address:

Ambulance Partner Soziotechnologie APST GmbH Administration Building F Westhafenstr. 1 13353 Berlin

or email:

 koordination@ambulanzpartner.de

After receipt of the signed consent form, the patient will receive an email with a registration link for the APVP software. The patient will provide a username and password.

3.2 By concluding the contract, the patient declares his agreement to these General Terms and Conditions, the Data Protection Declaration (Section 7.3) and the Service Description.

3.3 The patient warrants that the information provided during the contract is complete and correct. In the event of a breach, APST is entitled to immediately block the patient’s user account.

4. Term and termination of the contract

4.1 The contractual relationship is concluded for an indefinite period.

4.2 Either party may terminate the contract at any time with four weeks‘ notice to the end of a month. Termination must be declared in writing or in text form. Ongoing care orders placed by other APVP users using the platform are not affected by such termination and can be concluded – subject to a different declaration by the patient as part of their termination.

4.3 Both parties are entitled to extraordinary termination for good cause, in particular in the event of a material breach of contract in which the continuation of the contract becomes unreasonable for one of the parties.

4.4 The provisions of Section 2.5 and the patient’s rights arising therefrom remain unaffected.

5. Patient obligations and safety recommendations

5.1 The patient is obligated to protect their access data (username, password) carefully and, like valuables, from unauthorized access by third parties. The patient is expressly recommended to use antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software, as well as up-to-date browser versions. If the patient uses outdated browser versions, the correct display of the APVP software, the ALS app, or the SMA app may be limited. In this case, the patient can obtain information about suitable browsers and their versions from the APST.

5.2 The patient undertakes not to post any illegal content on the APVP or to make it accessible to third parties, for example, through forums, chat rooms, email, or spam. Violations of the contractual usage restrictions entitle APST to take appropriate remedial measures, up to and including blocking the user account. In this case, the patient will be informed immediately of the type, duration, reason, and extent of the blocking.

5.3 The accuracy of the data and information provided by the patient influences the value of the contractual services provided by APST. The patient expressly indemnifies APST against any claims for compensation from third parties who have relied on the completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of the data and information.

6. Costs of using APST services and software

6.1 The use of the services described in the service description for patients as well as the use of the APVP software, the ALS app and the SMA app is free of charge for patients and the persons authorized by them.

6.2 The use of the services described in the service description for Medical Partners as well as the use of the APVP software is free of charge for Medical Partners.

6.3 The use of the services described in the service description for supply partners as well as the use of the APVP software by suppliers is subject to a charge for supply partners.

7. Data security, consent to data processing, protection of patient data

7.1 APST is subject to the data protection regulations of the Federal Republic of Germany. Based on these regulations, APST is obligated to protect the data of patients and other parties involved.

7.2 APST takes all organizational and technical precautions required by current standards to comply with data protection requirements, in particular to protect patient data against unauthorized access by third parties. The transmission of stored data via the World Wide Web from the server to the patient’s computer and vice versa is carried out using the SSL encryption standard.

7.3 The patient expressly consents to the collection, processing and use of his data by APST and its medical and care partners within the scope of the contractually agreed purposes and in accordance with a separate data protection declaration.

8.Liability

8.1 In the event of intent or gross negligence, APST shall be liable without limitation for all damages caused by APST, its legal representatives and/or vicarious agents.

8.2 In the event of slight negligence, APST shall be liable without limitation for injuries to life, body or health caused by APST, its legal representatives and/or vicarious agents.

8.3 Liability under the Product Liability Act remains unaffected.

8.4 Otherwise, APST shall only be liable if a guarantee of quality has been assumed or a material contractual obligation (cardinal obligation) has been breached. The term „cardinal obligation“ refers abstractly to those obligations whose fulfillment is essential for the proper execution of the contract and on whose compliance the patient may regularly rely. In these cases, liability is limited to compensation for foreseeable, typically occurring damages.

9. Rights of use

9.1 APST grants the patient a simple (non-sublicensable and non-transferable) right of use limited to the term of the contract.

9.2 The patient is only authorized to use the APVP internet portal, the ALS app, and the SMA app in accordance with the contractual provisions. The software is not transferred to the patient.

9.3 The patient is not authorized to make the contractual service available to third parties for use. Access is excluded for relatives of the patient or other persons authorized by the patient. Upon patient consent on the „Registration on the Ambulance Partner Care Portal for Relatives“ form, the third party authorized by the patient will receive an email from APST with a registration link for the APVP. This person will assign the username and password themselves. The patient is expressly prohibited from subletting the contractual APVP internet portal.

10. Reviews

10.1 The APST provides patients and persons authorized by the patient with evaluation software for the evaluation of medical devices, pharmaceuticals, services, and providers on the APVP or within the ALS app and SMA app. The evaluation results are published in aggregated form and without naming the patients on the APVP homepage or subpages. The patient hereby consents to this in accordance with the following provisions.

10.2 The APST ensures that patients can only rate care they have actually received. Each patient can rate a care partner a maximum of once per care.

10.3 Reviews must be objective and must not contain any infringing content. APST is not liable for the accuracy, quality, or completeness of reviews. APST will remove inappropriate or infringing reviews upon reasonable notification.

11.Final provisions

11.1 Should any provision of this contract be or become invalid or void, this shall not affect the validity of all other provisions. The invalid or void provision shall be replaced by a valid provision that comes as close as legally possible to the purpose pursued by the invalid or void provision. This also applies to any gaps in the contract.

11.2. The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies. The statutory provisions restricting the choice of law and the applicability of mandatory provisions, particularly those of the state in which the customer, as a consumer, has his or her habitual residence, remain unaffected. If the patient is a merchant, a legal entity under public law, or a special fund under public law, the registered office of APST shall be the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship.