Patient Rights and Responsibilities

1. You have the right to considerate and respectful care. 
   
   

2. You have the right to obtain from your physician complete current information concerning your diagnosis, treatment and prognosis in terms you can be reasonably expected to understand. When it is not medically advisable to give such information to you, the information should be made available to an appropriate person in your behalf. You have the right to know, by name, the physician responsible for your care. 
   
   

3. You have the right to receive from your physician information necessary to give informed consent prior to the start of any procedure and/or treatment. Except in emergencies, such information for informed consent should include but not necessarily be limited to the specific procedure and/or treatment, the medically significant risks involved, and the probable duration of incapacitation. Where medically significant alternatives for care or treatment exist, or when you request information concerning medical alternatives, you have the right to know the name of the person responsible for the procedures and/or treatment. 
   
   

4. You have the right to refuse treatment and/or to change physicians and to be informed of the medical consequences of this action. 
   
   

5. You have the right to every consideration of your privacy concerning your own medical care program. Case discussion, consultation, examination and treatment are confidential and should be conducted discreetly. Those not directly involved in your care must have the permission of the patient to be present. 
   
   

6. You have the right to expect that all communications and records pertaining to your care should be treated as confidential. 
   
   

7. You have the right to expect that within its capacity, the Center will provide evaluation, service and/or referral as indicated by the urgency of the case. When medically permissible, a patient may be transferred to another facility only after that patient has  received complete information and explanation concerning the needs for and alternatives to such a transfer. The institution to which the patient is to be transferred must first have accepted the patient for transfer. 
   
   

8. You have the right to obtain information as to any relationship of this facility to other health care and educational institutions insofar as your care is concerned. You have the right to obtain information as to the existence of any professional relationships among individuals, by name, who are treating you. 
   
   

9. You have the right to be advised if the Center 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. 
   
   

10. You have the right to expect reasonable continuity of care. You have the right to know in advance what appointment times and physicians are available and where. You have the right to expect that this facility will provide a mechanism whereby you are informed by your physician or a delegate of the physician of your continuing health care requirements following discharge. 
    
    

11. You have the right to examine and receive an explanation of your bill regardless of source of payment. 
    
    

12. You have the right to know our facility rules and regulations and how they apply to your conduct as a patient. 

No catalog of rights can guarantee you the kind of treatment you have a right to expect. This facility has many  functions to perform, including the prevention and treatment of disease, the education of both health professionals and patients, and the conduct of clinical research. All these activities must be conducted with an overriding concern for the patient, and above all, the recognition of your dignity as a human being. Success in achieving this recognition assures success in the defense of the rights of the patient. 

PATIENT RESPONSIBILITY

It is your responsibility to fully participate in decisions involving your own health care and to accept the consequences of these decisions if complications occur. 

You are expected to follow up on your doctor's instructions, take medications when prescribed, and ask questions concerning your own health care that you feel is necessary.