Patient Rights and Responsibilities

As a patient you have the right to:

Impartial access to considerate and respectful care with dignity.

Care that respects a patient’s personal values and beliefs.

Be reasonably informed concerning decisions about your care within the boundaries of the law and with respect to the philosophy of West Feliciana Parish Hospital. This includes the right to refuse or discontinue treatment, the right to have an advance directive or living will, and the right to be informed of unanticipated outcomes.

Information, including that contained in your own medical record, necessary to enable the patient to make treatment decisions.

Choose a representative decision maker to the extent permitted by law.

Participate in the consideration of ethical issues that arise in your care.

Be informed of any human experimentation, research, or educational projects affecting your care of treatment.

The right “within the limits of the law” to personal privacy and confidentiality of information. This includes the right to expect discussion or consultation involving your case will be discretely held and the individuals not directly involved in your care will not be present without your permission.

Have your medical record read only by individuals directly involved in your treatment or in the monitoring of the records quality. Any other individuals wanting access to a patient’s medical record must have written authorization from the patient or that of his/her legally authorized representative.

Know the name and professional status of the people involved with your care. This includes your rights to know of the existence of any professional relationship to any other health care or educational institutions involved in your care.

Refuse to talk with or see anyone not officially connected with the hospital, including visitors, not directly involved in your care.

Be interviewed and examined in surroundings designed to assure reasonable visual and auditory privacy. This includes the right to have a person of one’s own sex present during certain parts of a physical examination, treatment, or procedure by a health professional of the opposite sex.

Expect reasonable patient safety in so far as the hospital practices and environment are concerned.

Access to people outside the hospital by means of visitors and by verbal and written communication.

You should be:

Informed by the practitioner responsible for your care, or your delegate, of any continuing healthcare requirements following discharge from the hospital.

Free from:

• Restraints used in the provision of acute medical and surgical care unless clinically necessary.
• Seclusion and restraints used in behavioral management unless clinically necessary.
• Mental, physical, sexual, and verbal abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

Assessed for pain and the management of pain.

Informed of the hospital rules including the right to openly, without repercussion, voice complaints regarding the care received and to have those complaints reviewed and resolved.

You also have the right to information about the hospital’s mechanism for the initiation, review, and resolution of patient complaints. The procedure is as follows:

• The patient or a staff member completes the Special Needs and Concerns form.
• This form is forwarded to Administration, a review is conducted, and the appropriate hospital personnel will respond back to the patient within 3 working days.
• If the response is not satisfactory, an Ethics Resolution of Conflict Committee will meet within 2 weeks, then a written response will be provided to the patient within 10 days.
• If this response is not satisfactory, the following agency may be contacted (by the patient):
  Department of Health & Hospitals
  Phone: (225) 342-9500 or 1-866-280-7737
  CMS (Medicare/Medicaid)
  Phone: 1-877-267-2323

Patient Responsibilities

West Feliciana Parish Hospital requests that all patients adhere to the following patient responsibilities to ensure delivery of the highest quality healthcare possible.

The patient or their representative is responsible for:

• Following hospital rules and regulations affecting patient care and conduct.
• Conducting himself/herself in a manner that is considerate of the rights of other patients and medical staff regarding privacy, quiet, and proper medical care.
• Respecting the property of other persons and West Feliciana Parish Hospital.
• The conduct of his/her visitors, ensuring that other patients are not deprived of their rights to privacy, quiet, and medical care.
• Cooperating with his/her treatment staff and accepting the consequences of his/her actions if he/she refuses treatment or doesn’t follow the practitioner’s instructions.
• Providing a complete and accurate medical history to the best of their knowledge, as well as information concerning complications or unexpected changes in their condition to his/her physician.
• Being open and honest about whether a proposed course of treatment is understood, and whether patient discharge orders and responsibilities are understood.
• Assurance that the financial obligations for the health care provided are fulfilled, which includes providing accurate and timely information about sources of payment and ability to meet financial obligations.
• Following the treatment plan recommended by the practitioner primarily responsible for his/her care.
• Keeping appointments and, if unable, notifying the appropriate practitioner or the hospital.