Patient's Rights and Responsibilities
Elmhurst Clinic respects the following rights and responsibilities of its patients and is committed to providing these rights to every patient.
Patient Rights
• You have the right to respectful and considerate
care and treatment.
• You have the right to have access to treatment
or accommodations that are available and
medically indicated without consideration as to
race, color, creed, national origin, handicap or
the nature of the source of payment for your
care.
• You have the right to appropriate assessment
and management of pain.
• You have the right to privacy concerning your
medical care.
• You have the right to expect that all communications
and records pertaining to your care will
be treated as confidential.
• You have the right to know, by name, the
physician who is primarily responsible for
providing your care.
• You have the right to communicate with the
physician responsible for your care to receive
from him or her information concerning the
diagnosis, nature and extent of your medical
problem. In addition, you have the right to be
informed of the nature and purpose of any
procedure that is to be performed, who will
perform the procedure, the medically significant
risks associated with the procedure, the
reasonable alternatives and their accompanying
risks and benefits.
• You have the right to make decisions about your
plan of care prior to and during the course of
treatment, and to refuse a recommended treatment
or plan of care to the extent permitted by
law and Hospital policy, and to be informed of
the medical consequences of this action.
• You have the right to have your personal values
and beliefs respected and to exercise your
cultural and spiritual beliefs in a manner
which does not interfere with the care and
treatment of you or other patients.
• You have the right to designate another individual
to make medical decisions for you if you
are unable to do so through an advance directive
such as a Living Will or a Durable Power
of Attorney for Health Care.
• You have the right to review the records pertaining
to your medical care and to have the
information explained or interpreted as necessary,
except when restricted by law.
• You have the right to request a consultation.
• You have the right to decide whether to participate
in a research project after receiving a full
explanation.
• You have the right to know if your request for
services cannot be reasonably provided by the
Hospital. If you request to be transferred to
another facility, you have the right to receive
information and an explanation concerning the
need for and alternatives to such a transfer. If
it is medically safe to transfer you, and the
facility to which you have requested a transfer
has accepted you, the Hospital will assist in
transferring you to that facility.
• You have the right to have visitors in accordance
with the Hospital’s visitor policy.
• You have the right to be informed of the
Hospital’s rules and regulations.
• You have the right to discuss your concerns
about the Hospital’s services with the Vice
President of Patient Care Services.
• You have the right to a consultation concerning
ethical issues that affect your care and treatment.
Ethics Consultation
Making treatment decisions has become more and
more complex in our increasingly technological
age. Maintaining and supporting your partnerships
with your health care providers is one of our
primary goals. If you have questions and/or concerns,
we encourage you to discuss them with your
physician or nurse. An Ethics Consultation Team
is available to assist in difficult situations.
Advance Directives
The patient Self-Determination Act of 1991 protects
your right to make decisions about your
health care, even when you are no longer capable
of communicating those decisions to your family,
physician, or other health care providers of the
Hospital. There are two common types of advance
directives that are recognized in the State of
Illinois. They are the Living Will and the Durable
Power of Attorney for Health Care.
A Living Will is a document which, put simply,
states that in the event that your condition is
deemed to be terminal by your primary care physician,
you do not want any death delaying procedures
to be done.
A Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is a
document which allows you to choose an agent—
someone who will speak and make decisions for
you when you are no longer able. You can also
make specific choices as to the types of care you
may or may not want, to help guide your agent and
physician.
During your admission process, your nurse will ask
you if you have completed one of these documents.
If so, we will need a copy to place on your
chart. If not, and you are interested in more information
and/or assistance in completing one of
these documents, a member of our Social Services
Department will be contacted to meet with you.
Patient Responsibilities
You have the responsibility to provide, to the best
of your knowledge, accurate and complete information
about present complaints, past illnesses,
hospitalizations, medications and other matters
relating to your health and to report unexpected
changes in your condition to the responsible
practitioner. You also have the responsibility for
asking questions if you do not understand a medical
or nursing action or do not understand what is
expected of you.
You have the responsibility for following the
treatment plan recommended by the practitioner
responsible for your care.
This may include following the instructions given
by nurses and other Hospital personnel as they
carry out the coordinated plan of care and implement
the responsible practitioner’s orders.