Patients Rights & Responsibilities

Patient’s Rights

You have the right to:

1. Considerate and respectful care, and to be made comfortable. You have the right to respect for your culture, psychosocial, spiritual and personal values, beliefs, and preferences.
2. Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
9. 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 severe chronic intractable pain with methods that include the use of opiates.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. Receive a notice of Beverly Hospital’s privacy practices. These practices are available at Privacy Practices.
14. Inspect, copy, and amend your protected health information.
15. Restrict the use or disclosure of your protected health information.
16. A full accounting of any disclosures of your protected health information.
17. File a complaint concerning Beverly Hospital’s privacy practices.
18. 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 services including notifying government agencies of neglect or abuse.
19. Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
23. Designate visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitor is related by blood or marriage, unless:
    
    • No Visitors 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 visitations, including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and the 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 facilities is not permitted to restrict, limit, or otherwise deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.
    
    
24. Have your wishes considered, if you lack decision-making capacity, for the purposes of determining who may visit. The method of that consideration will be disclosed in the hospital ​policy on visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any persons living in your household.
25. Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital’s bill regardless of the source of payment.
26. Exercise these rights without regard to sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, educational background, economic status or the source of payment for care.
27. Consistent with our mission and values, Beverly Hospital supports the assurance of patient rights to each patient. You have the right to file a complaint/grievance with the hospital. Your concerns as a patient are very important to us. Any member of the healthcare team can receive a grievance or complaint. The report will then be followed up by their director/manager or patient safety officer as appropriate. All issues will be handled in a timely manner. You may contact the Nursing Office at 4216 or the Quality Department at 5038.
    
    Issues that cannot be resolved through our suggested level may be forwarded to our Administrative Offices at (323) 725-4257 or (323) 725-4378 or mailed to:
    
    Beverly Hospital
    309 W. Beverly Boulevard
    Montebello, CA 90640
    Attn: Administration
    
    
28. A patient who perceives that a right has been violated may submit a written or verbal grievance directly to the Department of Public Health Services, regardless of whether or not the patient uses the hospital’s grievance process.
    
    The California Department of Public Health
    Licensing and Certification
    3400 Aerojet Avenue, Suite 323
    El Monte, CA 91731 (800) 228-1019
    
    Medical doctors are licensed and regulated by the Medical Board of California. To file a grievance about a physician, you may contact (800) 633-2322 or via the website: www.mbc.ca.gov.
    
    For concerns regarding quality of care issues you may contact DNV HEALTHCARE INC. toll free at (866) 523-6842 or via the website: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Patient’s Responsibilities

Patients are responsible for the provision of accurate and complete information about their health state, compliance with instructions and asking questions when clarification is needed; his/her own actions if he/she should refuse treatment; assuring hospital related financial obligations are met; and adherence to all hospital rules and regulations including consideration for others.

Provision of Information: A patient has the responsibility to provide, to the best his/her knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications and other matters related his/her health. He/she has the responsibility to report unexpected changes in his/her condition to the responsible practitioner. A patient is responsible for reporting whether he/she clearly comprehends a contemplated course of action and what is expected of him/her.

Instruction Compliance: A patient is responsible for following the treatment plan recommended by the practitioner primarily responsible for his/her care. This may include following the instructions of nurses and allied health personnel as they carry out the coordinated plan of care, implement the responsible practitioner’s orders and enforce the applicable hospital rules and regulations. The patient is responsible for keeping appointments and, when unable to do so for any reason, notifying the responsible practitioner or the hospital.

Refusal of Treatment: The patient is responsible for his/her actions if he/she refuses treatment or does not follow the practitioner’s instructions.

Hospital Charges: The patient is responsible for assuring the financial obligations of his/her healthcare are fulfilled  as promptly as possible.

Hospital Rules and Regulations: The patient is responsible for following hospital rules and regulations affecting patient care and conduct.

Respect and Consideration: The patient is responsible for being considerate of the rights of other patients and hospital personnel and for assisting Beverly Hospital in the control of noise, observation of the hospital’s no smoking policy and the number of visitors. The patient is responsible for being respectful of property of other persons and that of the hospital.