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Bill of RightsYour Rights and Responsibilities as a Patient
As a patient, you are a critical player on your health care team. You have both rights and responsibilities when it comes to health and the health care services you receive.
The following is an abbreviated list of those rights and responsibilities. For a complete list, including how to file a complaint, click here (See Your Rights, #25).
Your Rights:
- Expect that you will be treated fairly and respectfully without regard to your age, race, religion, income etc.
- Have reasonable access to care
- Expect that your requests will be honored
- Know the name and job of the people providing you with care
- Know about your illness and participate in the decisions about your care
- Have assistance understanding and making use of Hospice services when appropriate.
- Have family members as involved or uninvolved as you choose in your care and decisions about your care.
- Be asked for your consent to treatment and care, except in cases of emergency
- Refuse treatment you do not want
- Leave the hospital if you choose to unless you have a condition that makes you at risk to yourself or could affect others
- Have your pain controlled as much as possible
- Have your privacy respected
- Know that your written wishes about creating a living will and similar issues (called advance directives*) will be honored
- Know what is in your medical record
- Refuse to be part of a research study
- Have clear instructions to follow and understand what you need to do to recover when you leave the hospital
- Receive a bill you an understand or have that bill explained to you
- Know the Medical Center rules
- Have an interpreter if you need one
- Talk about your illness and care to anyone you want.
- Stay with your sick child or terminally ill family member or have an immediate family member stay with you if you want
- File a written or verbal complaint if you are unhappy with your care. For further directions, click here.
If you are a Medicare Beneficiary, you have additional rights you can review by clicking here
Your Responsibilities:
For a complete list of what is expected of you, click here. In brief, you are expected to:
- Keep appointments or cancel/reschedule with plenty of notice
- Be considerate of other patients and their privacy
- Observe safety regulations including non-smoking rules
- Supply full and accurate personal and health information as requested
- Recognize the effect of your lifestyle on your personal health
- Work with the health care team to make informed health care decisions
- Let us know if you do not understand or cannot follow directions
- Be aware of what your health care insurance does and does not cover
- Know what medications and over-the-counter drugs you are taking
*Additional Links:
For information and forms dealing with Advance Directives, visit The Vermont Ethics Network www.vtethicsnetwork.org whose mission it is to increase understanding of ethical issues, values and choices in health and health care.
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