Patient Rights & Responsibilities
Medical Services in Madera & Chowchilla
Every patient is entitled to certain privileges and rights while staying
at Madera Community Hospital. Read over our full list of patient rights
and responsibilities so you can learn more about that to expect during
your time at our facility.
DERECHOS DEL PACIENTE
You have the right to:
- 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.
- Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your
own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
- Know the name of your licensed healthcare practitioner acting within the
score of his or her professional licensure who has primary responsibility
for coordinating your care, and the names and professional relationships
of physicians and non-physicians who will see you.
- 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.
- 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
tor non-treatment, and the risks involved in each, and the name of the
person who will carry out the procedure or treatment.
- 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 members of the medical staff, to the extent permitted by law.
- Be advised if the hospital/licensed healthcare practitioner acting within
the scope of his or her professional licensure 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.
- Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
- 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 the treatment
of pain with methods that include the use of opiates.
- 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
patients’ rights apply to the person who has legal responsibility
to make decisions regarding medical care on your behalf.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion,
discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
- Reasonable continuity of care and to know in advance the time and location
of appointments as well as the identity of the persons providing the care.
- Be informed by the physician or a delegate of the physician, of continuing
healthcare 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.
- Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
-
Designate a support person as well as visitors of your choosing, if you
have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitor is related by
blood, marriage, or registered domestic partner status, 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. However, a health facility may establish reasonable restrictions
upon visitation, including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and
number of visitors. The health facility must inform you (or your support
person, where appropriate) of your visitation rights, including any clinical
restrictions or limitations. The health facility is not permitted to restrict,
limit, or otherwise deny visitation privileges on the bases of race, color,
national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or
disability.
- Have your wishes considered, if you lack decision-making capacity, for
the purposes of determining who may visit. The method of that consideration
will comply with federal law and be disclosed in the hospital policy on
visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any persons living
in your household and any support person pursuant to federal law.
- The patient’s family has the right of informed consent for donation
of organs and tissues.
- Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital’s bill regardless
of the source of payment.
- Exercise these rights without regard to sex, economic status, educational
background, race, color, religion, ancestry, national original, sexual
orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, medical condition,
marital status, age, registered domestic partner status, genetic information,
citizenship, primary language, immigration status (except as required
by federal law) or the source of payment for care.
- File a grievance. If you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you
may do so by writing or by calling:
Madera Community Hospital
1250 E. Almond Avenue
Madera, CA 93637
(559) 675-2573
QualityCare@MaderaHospital.org
The Grievance Committee will review each grievance and provide you with
a written response within 30 days. The written response will contain the
name of a person to contact at the hospital, the steps taken to investigate
the grievance, the results of the grievance process, and the date of completion
of the grievance process. Concerns regarding quality of care or premature
discharge will also be referred to the appropriate Utilization and Quality
Control Peer Review Organization (PRO).
24. File a complaint with the California Department of Public Health regardless
of whether you use the hospital’s grievance process. The California
Department of Public Health’s phone number and address is:
California Department of Public Health
Licensing and Certification
285 W. Bullard Avenue, Suite 101
Fresno, CA 93704
(559) 437-1500
This Patient Rights document incorporate the requirements of HFAP (Healthcare
Facilities Accreditation Program); Title 22; California Code of Regulations,
Section 70707; Health and Safety Code Sections 1262.6, 12884, and 124960;
and 42 C.F.R. Section 482.13 (Medicare Conditions of Participation).
Questions and Concerns: If you have concerns about the care you have received, we encourage you
or a family member to speak with your physician or with the nursing Director/Supervisor.
If you feel that your issue was not resolved, please contact the Patient
Liaison at
(559) 675-2573 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Holidays.
Last update: October 2019