Patient Rights and Responsibilities

Your Rights

1. Be treated with respect and kindness.
2. Appropriate and safe treatment for your health condition no matter what race, age, creed, gender, national origin, or source of payment for your care.
3. Be told about your medical condition, treatment and outlook in terms that you can understand, in order to make an informed decision.
4. Make choices about your own care, including the right to request care.
5. Say no to care as allowed, including refusal to participate in research.
6. Have your family, you caregiver or your personal physician notified of your admission to the hospital.
7. Make an Advance Directive including a Living Will and/or Power of Attorney for Healthcare. They will ask you about this when you are admitted. You also have the right for your caregivers to follow your Advance Directive.
8. Privacy of your medical records and details about your care.
9. Look at your medical records.
10. Request a discharge planning evaluation.
11. Personal privacy.
12. Safety while in the hospital and facts about the use of safety items.
13. Be free from all forms of abuse.
14. Know that the hospital will give you the best care it can. You may be asked to move to another hospital or place of treatment. If so, you will be told your choices and what could happen with those choices.
15. Be told about how to continue you care upon your discharge
    from the hospital.
16. Be told of the hospital’s rules.
17. Receive a copy of your bill as permitted by law.
18. Be told how and to whom you may voice a complaint. At Optim Health System, call the Compliance Officer Hotline at 877.233.0377 or the Department of Community Health, Healthcare Facility Regulation Division (HFRD), at 800.878.6442 or 404.657.5726 and by mail at 2 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30303, or notify the Office of the Medicare Beneficiary Ombudsman at www.Medicare.gov/Ombudsman/resources.asp, 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) TTY users should call 1-877-486-2048.
19. Appropriate assessment and treatment of pain.
20. Emotional and physical care that supports families and children. This includes care that supports the need of children to grow, play and learn.

Your Responsibilities

1. Letting the hospital know about any medicines you are taking at home, your medical history and your present medical problems.
2. Giving the hospital a copy of your Advance Directive, if you have one.
3. Asking questions when you or your family do not understand what you have been told about your medical condition, your treatment, or what you should do to take care of yourself.
4. Knowing and following the hospital rules and provide a responsible adult to drive you home and stay with you for 24 hours if required.
5. Participating in all decisions about your treatment. You are the center of the health care team.
6. Following instructions, including your plan of care as developed by you and your health care team. Your plan of care includes the effect of lifestyle on your health. Your are also responsible for accepting the consequences of not getting treatment or not following the instructions of your caregivers.
7. Educating yourself about your diagnosis, the medical tests you are undergoing, and your treatment plan.
8. Asking a trusted family member or friend to be your advocate.
9. Showing respect toward other patients and the hospital staff. This includes treating hospital belongings with respect.
10. Paying your hospital bill. This includes giving the hospital correct information about your insurance or the way you will pay your bill*
11. Letting the hospital know of any suggestions you may have for improving the quality of care rendered to our patients.

* You may also receive a separate bill from the surgeon, anesthesiologist, lab and/or radiologist.

These rights and responsibilities can and should be exercised on the patient’s behalf by the patient, guardian, designated surrogate or proxy decision-maker if the patient lacks decision-making capacity, is legally incompetent, or is a minor.