Patient Rights & Responsibilities
As a patient at Mercy Medical Center, you have certain patient rights.
Patient Rights
You have a 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.
10. File a complaint with the state Department of Health Services regardless of whether you use the hospital’s complaint process. The state Department of Health Service’s phone number and address is:
Department of Health Services Licensing and Certification Division
285 West Bullard Drive, Suite 101
Fresno, CA 93704
(559) 437-1500 or the Joint Commission (800) 994-6610.
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.
Patient Responsibilities
The patient/family is responsible for:
- Providing, to the best of their knowledge, accurate and complete information about presenting complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to the patient’s health. They are responsible for reporting unexpected changes in the patient’s condition to the responsible practitioner.
- Asking questions when they do not understand what has been told about the patient’s care or what they are expected to do.
- Following the treatment plan developed with the practitioner. They should express any concerns they have about their ability to follow the proposed course of treatment.
- Accepting the consequences of failing to follow the recommended course of treatment or using other treatments.
- The outcomes of refusing treatment or failing to follow practitioner instructions.
- Following the hospital’s rules and regulations concerning patient care and conduct.
- Being considerate of other patients and hospital personnel by not making unnecessary noise,smoking or causing distractions.
- Respecting the property of other persons and that of the hospital.
- Meeting financial commitments.