Patient Rights and Responsibilities
Patient Rights
You have the right to receive health care that respects your cultural, psychosocial, and personal values and beliefs, including the right to request pastoral and other spiritual services. Our hospital is committed to serving all patients, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, political affiliation, veteran status, or other non-medically relevant factors.
Your Rights :
The Right to Be Treated with Respect
All patients, regardless of their means or health challenges, should expect to be treated respectfully and without discrimination by their providers, practitioners and payers.
The Right to Obtain Your Medical Records
The Hospital provides patients a right to obtain their medical records, including doctors' notes, medical test results and other documentation related to their care.
The Right to Privacy of Your Medical Records
The Hospital also outlines who else, besides the patient may obtain your records, and for what purposes.
The Right to Make a Treatment Choice
As long as a patient is considered to be of sound mind, it is both patient right and responsibility to know about the options available for treatment of his /her medical condition and then make the choice he/she feels is right for him/her. This right is closely associated with the Right to Informed Consent.
The Right to Informed Consent
No reputable practitioner or facility that performs tests, procedures or treatments will do so without asking the patient or his guardian to sign a form giving consent. This document is called "informed consent" because the practitioner is expected to provide clear explanations of the risks and benefits prior to the patient's participation, although that does not always happen as thoroughly as it should.
The Right to Refuse Treatment
A patient may refuse treatment as long as he/she is considered to be capable of making sound decisions, or he/she made that choice when he/she was of sound mind through written expression. This includes the right to refuse surgery.
The Right to Make Decisions About End-of-Life Care
The patients may make and legally record the decisions they make about how their lives will end, including life-preserving measures such as the use of feeding tubes or ventilators.
Patient Responsibilities
Corresponding to these patients' rights are a number of patients' responsibilities. It's important that you are aware of all of these so that you can be sure to takes steps to ensure the care you need, want and deserve.
By taking an active role in your health care, you can help your caregivers meet your needs as a patient or family member. That is why we ask you and your family to share certain responsibilities with us.
We ask that you :
provide, to the best of your ability, accurate and complete information about your present condition, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters related to your health or your child's, including information about home and/or work that may impact your ability to follow the proposed treatment.
follow the treatment plan developed with your provider. You should express any concerns about your ability to comply with a proposed course of treatment. You are responsible for the outcomes if you refuse treatment or do not follow your care provider's instructions.
be considerate of other patients and hospital staff and their property. Abusive, threatening. or inappropriate language or behavior will not be tolerated.
keep appointments or call us when you are unable to do so.
be honest about your financial needs, so that we may connect you to appropriate resources.Give us any health care proxy or other legal document, such as a power of attorney or court order, that may affect your decision-making ability or care.
Your Responsibilities :
Maintaining Healthy Habits
That proverbial ounce of prevention is most definitely more effective and efficient that the corresponding pound of cure. Making healthy food choices, getting plenty of exercise, resolving stress, getting enough sleep, moderating alcohol consumption, and refraining from smoking are those good habits we are all familiar with and most of us need to work on.
Being Respectful to Providers
Just as it's a patient's right to expect respect, it is the patient's responsibility to show respect in return. This is not to suggest that patients need to be so respectful that they are afraid to ask questions or request clarification on issues regarding their health. Rather, it's a recognition that commanding respect means giving it in return -- on both sides of the patient/provider equation.
Being Honest With Providers
As an empowered patient, you recognize that being totally honest with your practitioner is imperative. This means sharing all information about your habits and health, as holding back can mean not getting the care that you need.
Complying with Treatment Plans
Since you and your doctor will have worked together to agree on a treatment plan, it only makes sense to comply with that plan. Not doing so works against the good care you've put effort into securing.
Preparing for Emergencies
For those who have medical challenges and/or take prescription drugs to maintain their health, it is important to be prepared for medical emergencies. If you find yourself in an emergency room, you'll want to be sure hospital personnel know about the treatments you are already receiving, or the cautions needed for effective treatment.
Reading Behind the Headlines
We see news every day about some new study that changes the way we see certain diseases or conditions. Sometimes the headlines don't tell the whole story. As an empowered patient, you know to look behind those headlines to find out if they apply to you.
Making Decisions Responsibly
In the face of a frightening diagnosis, or a scary treatment option, it's difficult to leave our emotions out of our decisions. We need to make sure our decisions about our care are based on solid evidence and proven procedures, rather than wishful thinking.