Patient Rights and Responsibilities
Your Rights
As a patient of Halifax Health, you have certain rights and responsibilities, which are important to us and to you. We want to be certain you are aware of these rights and urge you to read through this summary.
View Patient Responsibilities.
Access to Care
You are assured of impartial access to treatment or accommodations that are available or medically indicated without regard for race, creed, sex, national origin, ability to pay, age, handicap, or whether or not you have executed advance directives.
Access to Pain Management
You have the right to expect your pain to be treated appropriately.
Clinical Trials
You may be given information concerning a treatment option that is in the research stage. If this is the case, you have the right to refuse or to accept this treatment after appropriate information is given to you.
Communication
You have the right of access to people outside the hospital within the scope of Halifax Health’s rules. You have access to an interpreter and to important documents in large print or on cassette tapes, in Spanish and in French.
Consent and Consultation
You have the right to reasonable, informed participation in decisions involving your care. Except in emergencies, such information for informed consent will include the specific procedure and/or treatment, the medically significant risks, and benefits and alternatives.
Where medically significant alternatives for care or treatment exist, or when you request information concerning medical alternatives, you have the right to such information. You also have the right to know the name of the person responsible for the procedure and/or treatment and to collaborate with your physician regarding all healthcare decisions. In addition, you have, at your own request and expense, the right to consult with a specialist.
Diagnosis and Treatment Information
You have the right to obtain from your physician complete and current information concerning your diagnosis in terms you can reasonably understand, including unanticipated outcomes. When it is not medically advisable to provide you such information, the information should be made available to an appropriate person on your behalf.
You have the right to obtain information as to any relationship of Halifax Health to any other healthcare and educational institutions insofar as your care is concerned, and you have the right to know of the existence of any professional relationships among individuals, by name, who are treating you.
You Have the Right to Information Relating to Information Disclosure
You have the right to request information regarding:
- Corporate form of the facility (public or private; nonprofit or profit; ownership and management; affiliation with other corporate entities).
- Accreditation status.
- Whether specialty programs meet guidelines established by specialty societies or other appropriate bodies.
- Volume of certain procedures performed.
- Consumer satisfaction measures.
- Clinical quality performance measures.
- Procedures for registering a complaint and for achieving resolution of that complaint.
- The availability of translation or interpretation services for non-English speakers and people with communication disabilities.
- Numbers and credentials of providers of direct patient care.
- Whether the facility’s affiliation with a provider network would make it more likely that a consumer would be referred to health professionals or other organizations in that network.
- Whether there are any Federal health programs the facility has been excluded from.
End of Life Care
You have the right to respectful, responsive end of life care.
Formulation/Execution of Advance Directives
You have the right to formulate advance directives including a living will and/or appointment of a healthcare surrogate. You have the right to have any or all advance directives made a part of your medical record, and the right to have the terms of such advance directives complied with by Halifax Health and its caregivers to the extent permitted by law.
You have the right to be transferred to another facility or to engage another physician if the facility or physician cannot respect your advance directive requests as a matter of conscience.
Hospital Charges
You have the right to request and receive an itemized and detailed explanation of your total bill, regardless of the source of payment. At any time before, during or after hospitalization, patient accounting personnel are available during normal working hours to discuss financial arrangements or the details of any billing.
Identity of Caregivers
You have the right to know the identity and professional status of individuals providing services to you.
Patient Complaints/Grievances
You have the right to expect that any concerns you, members of your family or your visitors have, relative to your care, conditions or other issues related to our services will be taken seriously and promptly acted upon.
Hospital policies provide for follow-up and feedback to you or other complainant relative to any issue. Patient Relations personnel, department managers and/or the administrator on call will be pleased to receive and respond to your concern at any time during your stay or thereafter. Quality of care issues that are received in writing will be responded to promptly.
You can write to us at:
Administrator
Halifax Health Medical Center
303 N. Clyde Morris Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
Privacy and Confidentiality
You have the right to personal and information privacy. Pursuant to this, you may:
- Refuse to talk or see persons not connected with the hospital or directly involved in your care.
- Wear appropriate personal clothing or symbolic items if they do not interfere with diagnostic procedures, treatment or care.
- Be interviewed and examined in surroundings designed to assure visual and auditory privacy.
- Expect discussions and consultations involving your care to be conducted discreetly.
- Have medical records read only by individuals directly involved in your treatment, or individuals monitoring the quality of your care, or by individuals designated by written authorization by you or your legally authorized representative.
- Expect all communications and records pertaining to your care, including the source of payment for treatment, to be treated as confidential.
- Request transfer to another room if another patient or visitor in the room is disturbing you.
- Be placed in protective privacy when considered necessary for your personal safety and to expect at all times reasonable safety and a secure environment within a Halifax Health medical facility.
- Expect that those not directly involved in your care may be present only with your permission.
Protective Services
You have the right to access protective services which may include guardianship, advocacy services, conservatorship, state survey and certification agencies, state licensure offices, protection and advocacy networks, and Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse offices.
Here are phone numbers at which many of these services may be reached:
| Abuse Registry; Child, Adult, Elderly, Disabled Protective Service |
800.962.2873 |
| Medicare Customer Services |
877.267.2323 |
| Medicaid Office |
386.238.3100 |
| Agency for Health Care Administration Division of Quality Assurance |
888.419.3456 |
| State Agency Services Dealing with Alcohol, Drug Abuse & Mental Health |
386.254.3744 |
| Developmental Disability Services |
386.238.4607 |
| Children & Families Program |
386.238.3100 |
You may refuse treatment to the extent permitted by law and in such event will be informed of the medical consequences of your actions. When the refusal of treatment by you or your legally authorized representative prevents the provision of appropriate care in accordance with professional standards, our relationship with you may be terminated upon reasonable notice, after any immediate acute illness is resolved.
In the event a conflict should arise, the Bioethics Committee of Halifax Health may be convened to assist with a resolution that is in keeping with your desires and the laws and regulations with which we must comply.
You have the right to remain free of restraints unless clinically necessary.
You may not be transferred to another facility unless you have received a complete explanation of the need. The institution/physician to which you are to be transferred must first have accepted you.
You have the right to expect reasonable continuity of care, and that the hospital will provide a mechanism whereby you are informed by your physician or delegate of your continuing care requirements following your discharge from a Halifax Health medical facility.
You are responsible for following the treatment plan developed by your physician and cooperating with caregivers implementing that plan. You are responsible for keeping appointments or for informing the physician or hospital in a timely manner if you are unable to do so.
You are responsible for assuring that your financial obligations are fulfilled as promptly as possible and for working with Halifax Health representatives in the provision of reliable information on which financial support or insurance filings may be based.
You have the responsibility to provide accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medication, and other matters relating to your health.
You are responsible for your actions if you refuse treatment.
As a patient you are responsible for following the rules and requirements of Halifax Health and its facilities as outlined to you, and for being considerate of the rights of other patients and hospital personnel.
Your assistance in the control of noise and activity in and about your room and the conduct of your visitors and guests will contribute to the quality of care shared by all patients.
A copy of the American Hospital Association Patient’s Bill of Rights is a part of the Advance Directives booklet called to your attention on admission. Additional copies are readily available on request at any time during your stay.