Patient Rights and Responsibilities

As a patient you have the right to:

1. Considerate and respectful care, and to be made comfortable. You have the right to respect for your cultural, psychosocial, spiritual, and personal values, beliefs, and preferences.

2. Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.

3. Know the name of the licensed health care practitioner acting within the scope of his or her professional licensure who has primary responsibility for coordinating your care, and the names and professional relationships of other physicians and non-physicians who will see you.

4. Receive information about your health status, diagnosis, prognosis, course of treatment, and outcomes of care (including unanticipated outcomes) in terms that you can understand. You have the right to effective communication and to participate in the development and implementation of your plan of care. You have the right to participate in ethical questions that arise in the course of your care, including issues of conflict resolution, withholding resuscitative services, and forgoing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.

5. Make decisions regarding medical care and receive as much information about any proposed treatment or procedure as you may need in order to give informed consent or to refuse a course of treatment. Except in emergencies, this information shall include a description of the procedure or treatment, the medically significant risks involved, alternative courses of treatment or non-treatment and the risks involved in each, and to know the name of the person who will carry out the procedure or treatment.

6. Request or refuse treatment, to the extent permitted by law. However, you do not have a right to demand inappropriate or medically unnecessary treatment or services. You have the right to leave the hospital even against the advice of member of the medical staff, to the extent permitted by law.

7. Be advised if the hospital/licensed health care practitioner acting within the scope of his or her professional licensure proposes to engage in or perform human experimentation affecting your care or treatment. You have the right to refuse to participate in such research projects.

8. Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.

9. Appropriate assessment and management of your pain, information about pain, pain relief measures, and to participate in pain management decisions. You may request or reject the use of any or all modalities to relieve pain, including opiate medication, if you suffer from severe chronic intractable pain. The doctor may refuse to prescribe the opiate medication, but if so, must inform you that there are physicians who specialize in the treatment of pain with methods that include the use of opiates.

10. Formulate advance directives. This includes designating a decision-maker if you become incapable of understanding a proposed treatment or become unable to communicate your wishes regarding care. Hospital staff and practitioners who provide care in the hospital shall comply with these directives. All patients’ rights apply to the person who has legal responsibility to make decisions regarding medical care on your behalf.

11. Have personal privacy respected. Case discussion, consultation, examination, and treatment are confidential and should be conducted discreetly. You have the right to be told the reason for the presence of any individual. You have the right to have visitors leave prior to an examination and when treatment issues are being discussed. Privacy curtains will be used in semi-private rooms.

12. Confidential treatment of all communications and records pertaining to your care and stay in the hospital. You will receive a separate “Notice of Privacy Practices” that explains your privacy rights in detail and how we may use and disclose your protected health information.

13. Receive care in a safe setting, free from mental, physical, sexual, or verbal abuse and neglect, exploitation or harassment. You have the right to access protective and advocacy services, including notifying government agencies of neglect and abuse.

14. Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation by staff.

15. Reasonable continuity of care and to know in advance the time and location of appointments as well as the identity of persons providing the care.

16. Be informed by the physician, or a delegate of the physician, of continuing health care requirements and options following discharge from the hospital. You have the right to be involved in the development and implementation of your discharge plan. Upon your request, a friend or family member may be provided this information also.

17. Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.

18. Designate a support person as well as visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitor is related by blood, marriage, or registered domestic partner, unless:

• No visitors are allowed

The facility reasonably determines that the presence of a particular visitor would endanger the health or safety of a patient, a member of the health facility staff, or other visitor to the health facility, or would significantly disrupt the operations of the facility

• You have told the health care facility staff that you no longer want a particular person to visit

However, a health facility may establish reasonable restrictions upon visitation, including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and number of visitors. The health facility must inform you (or your support person, where appropriate) of your visitation rights, including any clinical restrictions or limitations. The health facility is not permitted to restrict, limit, or otherwise deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

19. Have your wishes considered, if you lack decision-making capacity, for the purposes of determining who may visit. The method of that consideration will comply with federal law and be disclosed in the hospital policy on visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any persons living in your household and any support person pursuant to federal law.

20. Examine and receive an explanation of the bill regardless of source of payment.

21. Exercise these rights without regard to sex, economic status, educational background, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, medical condition, marital status, age, registered domestic partner status, genetic information, citizenship, primary language, immigration status (except as required by federal law), or the source of payment for care.

22. File a grievance. If you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you may do so by writing or by calling:

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Patient Services Center
1000 West Carson Street, Room 1B1
Torrance, CA 90502
(424) 306-4400
Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Closed Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays

The Grievance Committee will review each grievance and provide you with a written response within 30 days. The written response will contain the name of a person to contact at the hospital, the steps taken to investigate the grievance, the results of the grievance process, and the date of completion of the grievance process. Concerns regarding quality of care or premature discharge will also be referred to the appropriate Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Organization (PRO).

23. File a complaint with any of the licensing or accrediting agencies listed below, regardless of whether you use the hospital’s grievance process.

Division of Accreditation
Operations/Office of Quality Monitoring
The Joint Commission
One Renaissance Boulevard
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Fax: (630) 792-5635
complaint@jointcommission.org

Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
7500 Security Boulevard, Mail Stop S2-12-25
Baltimore, MD 21244-1850
Phone: (800) 633-4227
https://www.cms.gov

Institute for Medical Quality
180 Howard Street, Suite 210
San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: (415) 882-5151

California Department of Public Health
Licensing and Certification Division
Information Hotline: (800) 236-9747
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs

Patient Safety Hotline
County of Los Angeles
Health Services
Phone: (213) 989-SAFE (7233)

Medical Board of California
(800) 633-2322
Website: www.mbc.ca.gov

As a patient, you have the responsibility for:

1. Providing, to the best of your knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications and other matters relating to your health. You have the responsibility to report unexpected changes in your condition to the responsible health care provider.

2. Making known whether you understand the recommended course treatment and what is expected of you.

3. Your own actions, if you refuse treatment or do not follow your health provider’s instructions.

4. Following the treatment plan recommended by the health care provider primarily responsible for your care. This includes following instructions of allied health staff as they carry out the plan of care and implement the physician’s orders, and as they enforce applicable hospital rules and regulations.

5. Being considerate of the right of other patients and hospital staff and for assisting in the control of noise, smoking, and the number of visitors. Your responsible for being respectful of the property of other persons and of the hospital.

6. Following hospital rules and regulations affecting patient care and conduct.

7. Ensuring that the financial obligations of your health care are fulfilled as promptly as possible.