Patient's Rights and Responsibilities

Each patient treated at Sutter Surgical Hospital - North Valley has 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 family members (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 physician, 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 response to any reasonable request 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 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 patient 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 being 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 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 person 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 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 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. However, a health facility may establish reasonable restrictions upon visitation, including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and number of visitors.

20. 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.

21. Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital's bill regardless to the source of payment.

22. 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 of care.

23. File a grievance. If you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you may do so by writing to: Sutter Surgical Hospital - North Valley, 455 Plumas Blvd, Yuba City, CA 95991, Attn: Chief Nursing Officer or call our Hotline at (530) 749-5750. You will be contacted within five (5) days of receipt of your complaint, and will receive a full written response after an investigation has been completed. Concerns regarding quality of care or premature discharge will be referred to the appropriate Hospital quality review committee.

24. File a complaint with the State Department of Public Health regardless of whether you use the hospital's grievance process. The State Department of Public Health's phone number and address is: State of California, Health Services Department, 714 P Street, Room 1350, Sacramento, CA 95814, (530) 445-4171. Or file a complaint with the Joint Commission at One Renaissance Boulevard , Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181, (800) 994-6610.

Each patient treated at Sutter Surgical Hospital has the responsibility to:

1. Provide, to the best of your knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, medications, past illnesses, hospitalizations, and other matters relating to your health and healthcare.

2. Provide information about advance directives: give us direction about your preferences for future medical care and the identity of anyone who you may want to make healthcare decisions on your behalf should you later become incapable of making such decisions on your own.

3. Inform us if you do not understand a proposed course of action or what is expected of you.

4. Ask questions about your treatment, diagnosis and/or prognosis.

5. Follow the directions of your physician and treatment team.

6. Inform us immediately if you believe that you are given a medication or being provided with a treatment that is not correct or not intended for you.

7. Ask for pain relief when pain first begins, help the staff assess your pain, work with staff to develop a pain management plan, and advise staff if your pain is not relieved.

8. Report unexpected changes in your condition to a member of the staff.

9. Accept responsibility for your actions should you refuse treatment or should you choose not to follow the prescribed treatment plan.

10. Learn what you can do to improve your ability to care for yourself, if appropriate.

11. Know and follow hospital rules and regulations, including those related to unit community living, noise control, smoking and visitors.

12. Respect the rights, privacy and confidentiality of other patients and staff.

13. Never bring a weapon into the hospital.

14. Never hurt or threaten another patient, family member or member of the staff.

15. Never bring alcohol or non-authorized drugs into the hospital.

16. Use only the medication prescribed for you in the amount specified.

17. Show respect for the property of others and the hospital.

18. Leave your personal valuables and property at home.

19. Satisfy your financial obligations for care and treatment by providing us with correct information about your health insurance or other source of payment.

20. Talk with a member of the staff if you are dissatisfied with the care and/or service.