Patients' Rights

Purpose

Eisenhower Health provides an environment that contributes to our patients' positive self-image. Our patients, and their authorized representatives, are accorded rights without regard to sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, educational background, economic status or the source of payment for care.

Patients' Rights

You have the right to:

1. 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.
   
2. Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
   
3. Know the name of the physician who has primary responsibility for coordinating your care and the names and professional relationships of other physicians and non-physicians who will see you.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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.
   
6. 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 physicians, to the extent permitted by law.
   
7. Be advised if the hospital/personal physician 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.
   
8. Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
   
9. 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.
   
10. 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.
    
11. 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 discussed. Privacy curtains will be used in semi-private rooms.
    
12. 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.
    
13. 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.
    
14. Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
    
15. 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.
    
16. 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.
    
17. Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
    
18. Designate and receive visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitor is related by blood or marriage, including, but not limited to, a spouse, a domestic partner (including same-sex domestic partner), another family member, or a friend, and to withdraw or deny such consent at any time. There is no restriction, limitation, or otherwise denial of visitation privileges based on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
    
    A health facility may establish reasonable restrictions upon visitation, including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and number of visitors. Further, visitation may be limited if:
    • 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 other 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.
      
19. Have your wishes considered, if you lack decision-making capacity, for the purposes of determining who may visit. The method of that consideration will be disclosed in the hospital policy on visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any persons living in your household.
    
20. Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital's bill regardless of the source of payment.
    
21. Exercise these rights without regard to sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, educational background, economic status or the source of payment for care.
    
22. File a grievance. If you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you may do so by writing or by calling:
    
    Quality Department
    Eisenhower Health
    39000 Bob Hope Drive
    Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
    760-674-3648
    
    The grievance committee will review each grievance and provide you with a written response within (7) seven days. It is acknowledged that occasionally a grievance may be complicated and more time will be needed to do an extensive investigation. 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).
    
23. File a complaint with the California Department of Public Health, Licensing and Certification Program, regardless of whether you use the hospital's grievance process. The California Department of Public Health's phone number and address is:
    
    California Department of Public Health
    Licensing and Certification Program
    625 East Carnegie Drive, Suite 280
    San Bernardino, CA 92408
    888-354-9203 or 909-388-7170
    
24. File a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights regardless of whether the patient uses the hospital's grievance process for denial of services or privacy issues. The Office of Civil Rights' address and phone number are:
    
    Duty Officer
    Office of Civil Rights
    50 United Nations Plaza, Room 322
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    800-368-1019
    
25. If your concerns cannot be resolved through the hospital, you may contact The Joint Commission by calling the Joint Commission's Office of Quality Monitoring at 800-994-6610 or by email at complaint@jointcommission.org.
    
26. Patients may obtain information or complain about a California medical doctor at: 800-633-2322 or mbc.ca.gov. Medical doctors are licensed and regulated by the Medical Board of California

Patients' Responsibilities

1. To provide complete and accurate information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications and other matters relating to your health; to report unexpected changes in your condition, and to ask questions when you do not understand information or instructions.
   
2. To follow the treatment plan recommended by your physician and to express any concerns you may have about your ability to follow a proposed course of treatment. This includes following the instructions of nurses and other health care personnel as they carry out the coordinated plan of care, implement your physician's orders and enforce the applicable hospital policies.
   
3. To accept responsibility for the outcomes if you refuse treatment or do not follow the care, service or treatment plan.
   
4. To provide accurate information concerning sources of payments to ensure financial obligations for your health care are fulfilled as promptly as possible.
   
5. To be considerate of the rights of other patients and hospital staff, and to respect the property of other persons and the hospital.
   
6. To promote a quiet and courteous atmosphere free of unnecessary noise and distractions; to use the telephone, television and lights so that you do not disturb others, and to follow hospital rules and regulations such as those regarding visitation and smoking.
   
7. In providing care, hospitals expect reasonable, responsible and respectful behavior from patients, their families and friends. Unacceptable behavior includes raising ones voice, profanity, and hostility toward patients, visitors, staff or physicians.

Rights and Responsibilities Procedure

1. Inpatients
   • Upon admission the patient will receive a copy of the patients' rights and responsibilities.
   • When a patient who is not incapacitated has designated either orally to hospital staff or in writing, another individual to be his/her representative, the hospital must provide the designated individual with the notice of patients' rights in addition to the patient.
   • Patients' Rights are posted conspicuously, in a prominent location within the premises and accessible to public view.
     
2. Outpatients
   • Patients will be provided at the first encounter at any of Eisenhower Medical Centers' outpatient departments. The patient will receive a copy of the Patients' Rights and Responsibilities.
   • Patients' Rights are posted conspicuously, in a prominent location within the premises and accessible to public view.
   • Paper copies of the Patients' Rights and Responsibilities are available upon request at any subsequent encounter.