Patient Rights
- 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.
- Have a family member (or another representative of your choosing) and your
own 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,
the 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 and end of life care.
- 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 physician 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 the
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 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, marriage, or registered domestic partner status, unless:
- No visitors are allowed.
- The 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 another visitor 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.
- However, a hospital may establish reasonable restrictions upon visitation,
including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and number of
visitors. When the hospital restricts a patient's visitors, mail,
telephone calls, or other forms of communication, the restrictions are
evaluated for their therapeutic effectiveness. The hospital must inform
you (or your support person, where appropriate) of your visitation rights,
including any clinical restrictions or limitations. The hospital 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.
- 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. Any
restrictions on communication are fully explained to the patient and family
and are determined with their participation. This section may not be construed
to prohibit a health facility from otherwise establishing reasonable restrictions
upon visitation, including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and
number of visitors.
- Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital’s bill regardless
of the source of payment.
- Exercise these rights without regard to sex, economic status, educational
background, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation,
disability, medical condition, marital status, registered domestic partner
status, or the source of payment for care.
- File a grievance. Patients may register a complaint or grievance, and recommend
changes freely without being subject to coercion, reprisal, or unreasonable
interruption of care. Patients may register a complaint or grievance,
and recommend changes freely without being subject to coercion, reprisal,
or unreasonable interruption of care. If you want to file a grievance
with this hospital, you may do so by writing or by calling: USC Arcadia
Hospital, Risk Management Department, 300 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia,
CA 91007. (626) 574-3409. The grievance committee will review each grievance
and provide you with a written response within 7 business 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 Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Organization (PRO).
- 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’s phone number and address is Department
of Health Services, 5555 Ferguson Drive #320, Commerce, CA 90022. Phone:
(855) 804-4205. CDPH_LNC_SFS@cdph.ca.gov
Issues or concerns regarding the quality of care may also be filed with
The Joint Commission (“TJC”) regardless of whether you use
the hospital’s grievance process. The Joint Commission can be contacted
at (800) 994-6610.
A copy of the hospital charge description master is available upon request
in our admitting areas or obtain a copy
HERE and the summary by Inpatient DRG can be obtained
HERE .
Translation Services Available: Translation services are available in any
language-please ask any employee concerning translation services including
for the hearing impaired. The TTY (Text Telephone) line is 626-574-3799.
This Patient Rights document incorporates the requirements of The Joint
Commission; Title 22, California Code of Regulations, Section 70707; Health
and Safety Code Sections 1262.6, 1288.4, and 124960; and 42 C.F.R. Section
482.13 (Medicare Conditions of Participation).
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