Patient Rights and Responsibilities
We are partners in your health care. When you are well informed, participate in treatment decisions, and communicate openly with your doctor and other health professionals, you help make your care as effective as possible. Downey Regional Medical Center respects the personal preferences and values of each individual.
As a patient, you have the right to…
➢ Considerate and respectful care, and to be made comfortable. You have the right to expect respect of your cultural, psychosocial, spiritual, and personal values, beliefs and preferences.
➢ Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
➢ 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 physicians and non-physicians who will see you.
➢ 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.
➢ 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 risks involved in each, and the name of the person who will carry out the procedure or treatment.
➢ 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 hospital even against the advice of members of the medical staff, to the extent permitted by law.
➢ 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.
➢ Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
➢ 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.
➢ 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.
➢ 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.
➢ 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.
➢ 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.
➢ Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
➢ 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.
➢ 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.
➢ Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
➢ Designate visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitor is related by blood or marriage, unless:
• No visitors are allowed.
• The hospital 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 visitors to the health facility, or would significantly disrupt the operations of the facility.
• You have told the health facility staff that you no longer want a particular person to visit.
• The visitation requested is outside of the hospital’s visitation restriction policy for hours and number of visitors.
➢ 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.
➢ Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital’s bill regardless of the source of payment.
➢ Exercise these rights without regard to sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, educational background, economic status or the source of payment for care.
➢ File a grievance. If you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you may do so by writing to:
Downey Regional Medical Center
11500 Brookshire Avenue
Downey, CA 90241
Attn: Risk Management Department
or by calling the Risk Management Department at (562) 904-5000. The grievance committee will review each grievance and provide you with a written response within 10 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 Quality Improvement Organization (QIO).
➢ File a complaint with the California Department of Public Health regardless of whether you use the hospital’s grievance process.
The California Department of Public Health
3400 Aerojet Avenue, Suite 323
El Monte, CA 91731
(800) 228-1019
As a patient, you have the responsibility to…
➢ Provision of Information: A patient, to the best of his knowledge, should provide accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medication, and other matters related to his health. He/she has the responsibility to report perceived risks in his/her care and unexpected changes in his/her condition to the responsible practitioner. A patient is responsible for reporting whether he clearly comprehends a contemplated course of action and what is expected of him/her.
➢ Compliance with Instructions: A patient is responsible for following the treatment plan recommended by the practitioner primarily responsible for his/her care. This may include following the instructions of nurses and allied health personnel as they carry out the coordinated plan of care, implement the responsible practitioner’s orders, and enforce the applicable hospital rules and regulations. The patient is responsible for keeping appointments and when he/she is unable to do so for any reason notifying the responsible practitioner or the Hospital.
➢ Refusal of Treatment: The patient is responsible for his/her actions if he/she refuses treatment or does not follow the practitioner’s instructions.
➢ Hospital Charges: The patient is responsible for assuring that the financial obligations of his/her health care are fulfilled as promptly as possible.
➢ Hospital Rules and Regulations: The patient is responsible for following hospital rules and regulations affecting patient care and conduct.
➢ Respect and Consideration: The patient is responsible for being considerate of the rights of other patients and hospital personnel and for assisting in the control of noise and the number of visitors. The patient is responsible for being respectful of the property of other persons and of the hospital.
➢ Pain Management: The patient is responsible to: discuss pain management options with your doctor or nurse; assist in development of a pain management plan; ask for pain relief when pain first begins; help the doctor and nurse measure your pain; tell the doctor or nurse if your pain is not relieved.