For Our Patients

As a patient, you have rights regarding the care you receive and we want you to be involved. Knowing your rights can help you make better decisions about your care. If you have any questions, problems, safety concerns or unmet needs, please notify a member of our staff. Language assistance and interpreters are free of charge and available in many languages. In addition, TDD services and Voice Relay is available for individuals that are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired. Ask a staff member if you need any assistance.

Patient Rights

As a patient, you have the right to:

1. Receive considerate and respectful care, and be made comfortable. You have the right to have your cultural, psychosocial, spiritual, and personal values, beliefs and preferences respected.
2. Have automatic notification of your admission to the Emergency Department or Hospital, discharge, or transfer from the Hospital sent to your physician(s). You may also choose to refuse, however, your physician(s) or primary care clinic is an important part of your healthcare team and will help you with continuing care after discharge from the hospital. Receive assistance from the healthcare team with notification of your admission to the Emergency Department or Hospital, discharge, or transfer from the Hospital to a family member (or other representative of your choosing)
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, 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 your 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 facility even against the advice of physicians, to the extent permitted by law.
7. Be told about any human experimentation that the facility or your personal physician proposes to engage in that might affect 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, and to be given information about pain and pain relief measures. You have the right to participate in decisions about your pain management. 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. Staff and practitioners who provide care will 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. Respect for your personal privacy. 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. You will receive a separate “Notice of Privacy Practices” that explains your privacy rights in detail and how Desert Hematology Oncology Medical Group, Inc. may use and disclose your protected health information.
13. 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.
14. Freedom from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
15. 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.
16. Be informed by the physician, or a delegate of the physician, of continuing health care requirements and options following discharge. 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.
17. Know which rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
18. Designate visitors/support individuals of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the individual is related by blood or marriage, unless:
    
    • No visitors are allowed,
    • The facility determines that the presence of a particular visitor would endanger the health or safety of you or other patients, staff members, other visitors, 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. 

19. Have your wishes considered for determining who may visit if you lack decision-making capacity. The method for determining who may visit will comply with federal law. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any support person pursuant to federal law.
20. Examine and receive an explanation of your bill regardless of the source of payment.
21. Exercise these rights without regard to, and be free of discrimination on the basis of, sex, economic status, educational background, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, medical condition, marital status, registered domestic partner status, genetic information, citizenship, primary language, immigration status (except as required by federal law) or the source of payment for care.
22. File a grievance by writing to Administration or by calling a supervisor or patient representative. Your grievance will reviewed and appropriate personnel will provide you with a response within 10 days, including the name of a person to contact, steps taken to investigate, the results of the investigation, and the date of completion.
23. File a complaint with the Medical Board of California at www.mbc.ca.gov/consumers/ complaints, (800) 633- 2322 or 2005 Evergreen St., #1200, Sacramento, CA 95815.