Patient Rights and Responsibilities
Your Rights
We have the utmost respect for you both as a person and patient, and will honor the following rights while you are in our care:
- Care that is considerate and respectful of your personal values and beliefs.
- Reasonable access to care and continuity of care, to the best of our ability, up to and including transfer.
- Necessary healthcare services to the best of our ability. If treatment, referral, or transfer is requested or recommended, you will be informed of risks, benefits, and alternatives. You will not be transferred until the other institution agrees to accept you.
- Privacy protection. The hospital, your physician, and others caring for you will follow applicable laws and protect your privacy as much as possible.
- Information and participation in care decisions.
- The name of the person in charge of your care.
- Complete information regarding your care and current information concerning diagnosis, treatment options, and expected outlook in terms you are able to understand. Your medical record is available upon request. Information can be made available to a designee on your behalf.
- Answers to ethical questions that arise in the course of your care, including issues of conflict resolution, formulating advance directives, withholding resuscitation, forgoing or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, participation in investigative studies or trials, and end-of-life care. This includes information about outcomes of care to include unanticipated outcomes and your right to exclude any or all family members from participating in your health care decisions.
- Opportunities to request or refuse treatment.
- Choice to consent to or decline to take part in research affecting your care. If you choose not to take part, you will receive the most effective care the hospital otherwise provides. If you do choose to participate, you have the right to full and informed consent.
- Information about realistic care alternatives when hospital care is no longer appropriate.
- Prompt notification of your admission to a family member and your physician.
- Expect reasonable safety insofar as the hospital’s practices and environment allow.
- Freedom from all forms of abuse or harassment.
- Freedom from restraints (or seclusion) of any form that are not medically necessary or are used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation.
- Privacy and security to the extent consistent with adequate medical care and confidentiality of all records, except as otherwise provided by law or third-party payment contract.
- An itemized explanation of charges when requested, regardless of source of payment.
- Disclosure about how the hospital’s rules and regulations apply to your conduct.
- Reasonable response to requests for services customarily rendered by the facility and consistent with treatment.
- Recognition of advance health care decisions in case you are unable to communicate your wishes.
- Information about pain and pain-relief measures. Our staff will respond quickly to your pain-relief needs with state-of-the-art pain management.
- Treatment without discrimination regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, source of payment, political belief, or handicap, including services for hearing and speech impairment.
- Access to a patient representative to express grievances and suggestions to the organization with the assurance that grievances will be reviewed with resolution.
- Information necessary to provide informed consent prior to any procedure and/or treatment. You may designate a decision maker in the event you are incapable of understanding a proposed treatment or to communicate your wishes regarding care.
- Access to protective services, which include assistance relative to guardianship and advocacy services, conservatorship, and child or adult protective services.
- Access to pastoral care and other spiritual services if you so desire.
- Effective communications including services for the hearing and speech impaired and for those for whom English is not a primary language, without cost.
- Transfer to another health facility. The transfer must be initiated either by the legally responsible person acting on your behalf or by physician order with the appropriate certification. All benefits and risks of transfer will be explained and outlined in writing to you or your designated representative.
- EIRMC takes many precautions to safeguard your health information. Read more about our responsibilities and your rights for privacy.
Your Responsibilities
- Provide Information: Provide an accurate medical history of your condition to your physician. You have the responsibility to provide, to the best of your knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illness, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to your health. You have the responsibility to report unexpected changes in your condition and whether you clearly comprehend your physician’s recommended course of action and what is expected of you.
- Follow the Hospital’s Rules and Regulations: You are responsible for following hospital rules and regulations affecting patient care and conduct.
- Follow Your Treatment Plan: You are responsible for following the agreed upon treatment plan recommended by the practitioner primarily responsible for your care.
- Provide Accurate Financial Information: You are responsible for providing accurate financial information, so that appropriate billings may be made to the person responsible for payment of the services, and for assuring that the financial obligations of your healthcare are fulfilled as promptly as possible.
- Show Respect and Consideration: You are responsible for being considerate of the rights of other patients and hospital personnel and for assisting in the control of noise, smoking, and the number of visitors. Please be respectful of the property of others and of the hospital.
- Ask Questions: You are responsible for asking questions when you do not understand your care, treatment, and service. You should also ask when you are not sure what you are expected to do.
