Patient Rights & Responsibilities

St. Elizabeth Community Hospital is committed to providing safe and quality care to all patients served. If you feel the care provided has in any way compromised patient safety or failed to meet accepted quality of care standards, please speak with the department manager. We will address your concerns as promptly as possible.

Patient Rights 


As a patient you have the following rights:
  1. The hospital respects the patient's right to and need for effective communication. 
  2. Considerate and respectful care: The hospital respects the patient's cultural and personal values, beliefs, and preferences. The hospital accommodates the patient's right to religious and other spiritual services.
  3. Exercise these rights without regard to sex, economic status, educational background, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, registered domestic partner status, or the source of payment for care.
  4. The hospital respects the patient's right to pain management.
  5. Knowledge of the name of the licensed healthcare practitioner acting within the scope of his or her professional licensure who has primary responsibility for coordinating the care, and the names and professional relationships of physicians and nonphysicians who will see the patient.
  6. Receive information about the illness, the course of the treatment and prospects for recovery in terms that the patient can understand.
  7. Receive as much information about any proposed treatment or procedure as the patient may need in order to give informed consent or to refuse this course of treatment. Except in emergencies, this information must include a description of the procedure or treatment, the medically significant risks involved in this treatment, alternate courses of treatment or nontreatment and the risks involved in each and to know the name of the person who will carry out the procedure of treatment. 
  8. Participate actively in decisions regarding medical care. To the extent permitted by law, this includes the right to refuse treatment. 
  9. The hospital respects the patient's rights to privacy with full consideration of privacy concerning the medical care program. Case discussion, consultation, examination and treatment are confidential and should be conducted discreetly. The patient has the right to be advised as to the reason for the presence of any individual.
  10. Confidential treatment of all communications and records pertaining to the care and the stay in the hospital. Written permission must be obtained before the medical records can be available to anyone not directly concerned with the care. The hospital allows the patient to access, request amendment to, and obtain information on disclosures of his or her health information, in accordance with law or regulation. You will receive a separate (Notice of Privacy Practices) that explains your privacy rights in detail and how Mercy Medical Center may use and disclose your protected health information.
  11. Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
  12. Leave the hospital even against the advice of members of the medical staff.
  13. Reasonable continuity of care and to know in advance the time and location of appointments as well as the identity of persons providing care.
  14. 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 care or treatment. The patient has the right to refuse to participate in such research projects.  

 

Patient Responsibilities

 

 As a patient you have the following responsibilities:

  1. Actively participate in decisions regarding your health care.
  2. Be as accurate and complete as possible when you are asked for information about your medical history.
  3. Be honest and direct about everything that happens to you as a patient.
  4. Let you doctor or nurse know if you are concerned about treatment, or if you feel you cannot or will not allow for a certain treatment plan.
  5. Notify a doctor or nurse at once if you notice or think you notice a change in your health.
  6. Notify your doctor or nurse at once if you have any concern about your hospital care.
  7. Follow your doctor’s advice and to let your doctor determine your level of activity, diet and health care requirements.
  8. Ask promptly for clarification if you do not understand what is asked of you, or why it is asked.
  9. Be considerate of other patients. (Noise can be irritating to other patients).
  10. Use hospital property and equipment only for their intended use.
  11. Examine your bill and make arrangements for payment.
  12. As a patient at this hospital, we expect that you will ask your doctor or nurse what to expect regarding pain and pain management; discuss pain relief options with your doctor or nurse; work with your doctor and nurse to develop a pain management plan; ask for pain relief when pain first begins; help your doctor and nurse assess your pain; tell your doctor or nurse if your pain in not relieved; and tell your doctor or nurse about any worries you have about taking pain medication.