Patient Rights & Responsibilities

PATIENT RIGHTS

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, prospects for recovery and outcomes of care(including unanticipated outcomes) in terms 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, alternate courses of treatment or non-treatment and the risk involved in each, and 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 the right to demand inappropriate or medically unnecessary treatment or services. You have the right to leave the health facility even against the advice of members of the medical staff, to the extent permitted by law.
7. Be advised if the health facility/licensed independent 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 severe chronic 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. Health facility staff and practitioners who provide care in the facility 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. Complaints about the advance directive requirements may be made to the California Department of Public Health (see contact information below).
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 reasons 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 health facility. 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 or abuse.
14. Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form as 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 the persons providing the care.
16. Be informed by the physician, or delegate of the physician, of continuing health care requirements and options following discharge from the health facility. 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 health facility 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 or marriage, or registered domestic partner status, unless: no visitors are allowed; the health 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 health facility; you have told the health 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 health facility’s policy on visitation. At a minimum, the health facility shall include any persons living in your household and any support person pursuant to federal law.
20. Examine and receive an explanation of your bill regardless of the 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 health facility, you may do so by writing or by calling the Patient Relations Department/Patient Advocate. Your grievance will be reviewed and you will be provided with a written response. The written response will contain the name of a person to contact at the health facility, 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 the California Department of Public Health regardless of whether you use the health facility’s grievance process. The California Department of Public Health’s phone number and address is 800-228-5234, 681 S Parker St., Suite 200 Orange, CA 92868.

PATIENT RESPONSIBILITIES

You have the responsibility to:

1. Provide as accurate and complete information as possible about present medical complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications and other matters relating to your health.
2. Report unexpected changes in your medical condition to your doctor or nurse.
3. Inform your doctor or nurse when you do not understand a proposed treatment plan and what is expected of you.
4. Cooperate with the agreed upon treatment plan recommended by your doctor and follow the instructions of your doctors and nurses.
5. Keep appointments or notify the hospital or clinic if you are unable to do so.
6. Accept the consequences of any refusal of treatment after you have thoroughly discussed the treatment plan with your doctor and have understood the possible consequences of refusal.
7. Provide financial information as necessary to qualify for healthcare benefits and fulfill financial obligation not covered by insurance.
8. Request health information and/or education as needed.
9. Be considerate and respectful of the rights and property of other patients, visitors, families and hospital staff and assist in the control of noise, smoking and the number of visitors.
10. Understand that after the patient has left the facility either by discharge order or against medical advice (AMA), his or her return to the facility shall be considered a new admission/visit.
11. Be respectful of the property of other persons and of the facility.