Patients' Rights & Responsibilities

Patients in the health care system have a variety of rights. These include the right to:

• access hospital and physician services, regardless of ability to pay
• receive safe and proper care
• give or refuse consent for any procedure, and for any reason
• have health problems and treatment options explained in an understandable way
• not be discriminated against based on a protected ground, such as race or sexual orientation
• privacy of their health records
• access to their health records
• create a health care directive and have it followed when they cannot give consent to health treatment

Patients in the health care system also have responsibilities that they should take on. These include the responsibility to:

• share necessary health information with their health care providers
• treat other patients with respect and dignity
• protect their own privacy, as well as the privacy of other patients
• make health care decisions as needed
• appoint someone to consent to treatment on their behalf, if necessary
• make sure they understand procedures or treatments and ask questions when in doubt