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Your Rights and ResponsibilitiesPatient Rights and Responsibilities
As a patient at Saint Vincent, you have the right to high-quality care, high professional standards and competent personnel. You also have the right to consideration of your personal values, respect for your dignity and comfort, privacy in your medical care, and confidentiality in the treatment of information and records of your care. You have a right to take an active role in your care. As a patient, you likewise have responsibilities. You are responsible for providing complete and accurate information about your medical problem and health history, for following the instructions of doctors and nurses, for letting staff know whether you understand a planned course of treatment, and for respecting other patients and their property. A more detailed description of your rights and responsibilities can be found in "Your Rights," a separate brochure that you should have received with your Patient Guide. If you did not receive this brochure and would like a copy, please talk with your nurse or call Patient Relations at extension 7081. Advance Directives: Your Living WillAs a patient of Saint Vincent, you have the right to take part in the decision making for your care. In general, if you are a competent adult and you do not want to receive a certain type of treatment, you have the right to make your wishes known to your doctor and other caregivers and to have your wishes respected. A Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care can help ensure that your wishes are followed in the event you cannot speak for yourself and are terminally ill. For example, you may be unconscious or too severely ill to tell your doctor what kind of treatment you would like to receive or under what circumstances the doctor should withhold treatment. We recommend that you consider some of these important issues and discuss them with your family before you're hospitalized or at the earliest opportunity during your stay. If you already have a living will or durable power of attorney, we encourage you to bring copies of these documents to the hospital. Upon your admission to Saint Vincent, you will be given a packet of information about advance directives. This packet will include a patient's guide to decision making, a copy of Saint Vincent Health Center's policy on advance directives, and forms to be completed. Information about organ donation is also available on all patient floors. If you have questions, feel free to talk with your nurse. Advance directives are a means for you to tell your health caregivers about the care you wish to receive – or not receive – should you ever become unable to tell them your wishes. There are two forms of advance directives:
By law, health care providers must provide necessary medical care to all individuals within their care. They are relieved of this duty only if they can demonstrate that the care goes against a persons wishes. If you have preferences about the health care you want to receive in the event you are not able to express your wishes, you may want to write a living will, a power of attorney for health care decisions, or both. For more information on advance directives, please Click on the links below: The following forms require Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™ Information on completing a Living Will Patient RelationsIn addition to providing you with medical care of the highest quality, we at Saint Vincent are committed to making your hospital stay as comfortable as possible. If you have concerns or comments about any aspect of your stay, we encourage you to contact our patient relations department. Call extension 7081 on your hospital phone Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. If you have questions, unmet needs, problems, or complaints while you’re here, please notify the staff providing your care or ask to speak to the department leader. Saint Vincent will make every effort to address your concern immediately. If the problem is not resolved to your satisfaction, please contact the Patient Relations department at 452-7081. A patient representative will assist you. |
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