Patient rights
To ensure comfort while a patient here, Humboldt General Hospital and its medical staff have adopted the following patients' rights.
HGH will honor these rights without regard to sex, economic status, educational background, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, or the source of payment for care.
Patients, as well as the person who may have legal responsibility to make decisions regarding medical care on behalf of the patient, have the right to:
- Receive access to services regardless of ability to pay. A discount sliding fee schedule is available.
- Considerate and respectful care in a safe and supportive environment. You have the right to respect for your cultural, psychosocial, spiritual, and personal values, beliefs, and preferences.
- Have a family member (or other representative) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
- 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.
- Receive information about your health status, 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 or 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 physicians, to the extent permitted by law.
- 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.
- 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.
- Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 health care requirements following discharge from the hospital. Upon your request, a friend or family member may be provided this information also.
- Designate visitors of your choosing, in compliance with hospital visitation policies and when visitation does not interfere with or compromise care. The hospital will consider your wishes, if you lack decision-making capacity, for the purposes of determining who may visit.
- Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital's bill regardless of the source of payment.
- Your comfort is of greatest importance to our staff. If you have a concern, complaint, or grievance, you may contact our Patient Relations Coordinator at 775.375.1050. Your complaint will in no way adversely affect your care or access to care.
Patient responsibilities
In addition to the rights expressed above, patients have the following responsibilities while at HGH:
- Patients have the responsibility to provide, to the best of their knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, allergies, and other matters relating to their health.
- Patients are responsible for making it known whether they clearly comprehend the course of medical treatment and what is expected of them.
- Patients are responsible for following the treatment plan recommended by the physician responsible for their care, including following the instructions of nurses and other health professionals.
- Patients are responsible for keeping appointments and, when unable to do so, for notifying the hospital or physician.
- Patients are responsible for their actions if they refuse treatment or do not follow their physician's instructions.
- Patients are responsible for assuring that the financial obligations of their health care are fulfilled promptly.
- Patients are responsible for following hospital rules and regulations affecting patient care and conduct.
- Patients are responsible for being considerate of the rights of other patients and hospital personnel, and for assisting in the control of noise, smoking, and the number of visitors.
- Patients are responsible for being respectful of the property of the persons and of the hospital.