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| | This section includes detailed information about
-your rights as a patient at Copley Hospital,
-if you should have a complaint or grievance,
-your responsibilities as a patient at Copley Hospital
Your Rights as A Patient at Copley Hospital
You are entitled to these rights regardless of sex, race, cultural, economic, educational or religious background or the source of payment for your health care.
All your rights as a health care consumer also apply to the person who may have legal responsibility to make decisions regarding your health care.
Based on Copley's values and mission, the board of directors, the medical staff and the employees of Copley Hospital jointly affirm and recognize the following rights and responsibilities of our patients:
As a patient at Copley Hospital, you have the right to:
• Have reasonable access to care and a reasonable response to your requests for services within the capacity of the hospital to provide them, including pastoral care or counseling or other spiritual services.
• Receive considerate and respectful care at all times and under all circumstances, with recognition of your personal dignity, values and beliefs.
• Expect that properly executed advanced directives will be honored; including the right to utilize a designated decision-maker when or if you are unable to understand or communicate your wishes.
• Have an attending physician who is responsible for coordinating your care. You shall also know the name of your attending physician and other individuals responsible for your care.
• Obtain, from the physician coordinating your care, complete and current information concerning diagnosis, treatment, and any known prognosis in terms you can reasonably be expected to understand. If the patient consents or if the patient is incompetent or unable to understand, immediate family members, a reciprocal beneficiary or a guardian may also obtain this information. When it is not medically advisable to give such information to the patient, the information shall be made available to immediate family members, a reciprocal beneficiary or guardian.
• Except in emergencies, receive from your physician or other health care practitioner, information necessary to give informed consent prior to the start of any procedure or treatment, or both, and know the name of the person responsible for the procedure or treatment or both. Such information for informed consent should include, but not necessarily be limited to, the specific procedure or treatment or both, the medically significant risks and benefits involved, and the probable duration of incapacitation. Where medically significant alternatives for care or treatment exist, or when the patient requests information concerning medical alternatives, you have the right to such information as well as the risks and benefits associated with no treatment at all.
• Refuse treatment to the extent permitted by law and be informed of the medical consequences of that refusal. You have the right to leave the hospital, even if your doctor advises against it, unless you have certain infectious diseases that could affect the health of others, or if you are incapable of maintaining your own or other people's safety as defined by law. The hospital shall be relieved of responsibility for any harm that comes to you as a result of refusal of treatment or leaving against medical advice.
• Receive professional assessment of pain and pain management.
• Expect reasonable privacy and confidentiality of your medical care program and record. People not directly involved in your care must have your permission to be present when care is being given. Case discussion, consultation, examination, and treatment are confidential and shall be conducted discreetly. This right includes the right, upon request, to have a person of one's own sex present during certain parts of a physical examination, treatment or procedure performed by a health care professional of the opposite sex; and the right not to remain disrobed any longer than is required for accomplishing the medical purpose for which you are asked to disrobe. The right to wear appropriate personal clothing and religious or other symbolic items so long as they do not interfere with diagnostic procedures or treatment. Certain conditions, such as cases of some communicable diseases, industrial diseases or accidents, and suspected cases of child or elder abuse, must by law be reported to appropriate state agencies, even without your authorization. In some cases involving potential liability, the hospital may disclose information in medical records to its own attorneys and agents.
• The right to expect that all communications and records pertaining to your care shall be treated as confidential. Only medical personnel, or individuals under the supervision of medical personnel, directly treating you, or those persons monitoring the quality of that treatment, or researching the effectiveness of that treatment, shall have access to your medical records. Others may have access to those records only with your written authorization.
• The right to expect that within its capacity the hospital shall respond reasonably to your request for services. The right shall include, if physically possible, a transfer to another room or place if another person in that room or place is causing disruption. When medically permissible, you may be transferred to another facility only after receiving complete information and explanation concerning the needs for and alternatives to such a transfer. The institution to which you are to be transferred must first have accepted the transfer.
• The right to know the identity and professional status of individuals providing services to you, and to know which physician or practitioner is primarily responsible for your care. This includes the right to know of the existence of any professional relationship among individuals who are treating you, as well as the relationship to any other health care or educational institutions involved in your care.
• Be advised if the hospital proposes to engage in or perform human experimentation affecting your care or treatment. Participation by patients in clinical training programs or in research programs shall be voluntary. You have the right to refuse to participate in such research projects.
• To expect reasonable continuity of care. You shall be informed by the attending physician of any continuing health care requirements following discharge.
• Receive an itemized, detailed and understandable explanation of charges regardless of the source of payment.
• Know what hospital rules and regulations apply to your conduct as a patient.
• Have family members or other persons you choose participate in care decisions. Patients may enter into a Reciprocal Beneficiaries Relationship in Vermont, which provides certain benefits and protections, along with certain responsibilities, that are granted to spouses in a marriage or civil union. A patient's Reciprocal Beneficiary shall be recognized and included as a participant in the patient's health care decision-making process.
• Whenever possible, parents or guardians have the right to stay with their children 24 hours a day. Whenever possible, guardians, significant others, reciprocal beneficiaries, agents or immediate family members have the right to stay with terminally ill patients 24 hours a day.
• Have an interpreter if a language barrier presents a continuing problem to your understanding of the care and treatment being provided. If you are hearing impaired, you have a right to an interpreter if the impairment presents a continuing problem to your understanding of care and treatments being provided.
• Talk about your illness and care to anyone you want.
• Be informed in writing of the availability of hospice services and the eligibility criteria for these services.
• Know the maximum number of patients being cared for on each shift and how many Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses and Licensed Nurse Assistants who provide direct care for each shift on the unit where you are receiving care.
• File a written or verbal complaint or grievance with the hospital, regarding your care and treatment and/or any patient safety issues and have your grievance reviewed.
If you should have a complaint or grievance:
We hope you have a good hospital experience. If, however, you are unhappy with your care or treatment in any way, please tell us right away so that we can try to fix the problem. Please speak directly with: -the person providing you with the service
-the Director of the service/department involved
-the Chief Nursing Officer
-contact Copley's Quality Management Department at 802-888-8351; 528 Washington Highway, Morrisville, VT 05661
The staff and management of Copley Hospital welcome your comments on our services and personnel.
Complaints received by the hospital will be reviewed and we strive to resolve them within a reasonable period of time.
As an alternative to voicing a complaint directly with the hospital, a patient or their family may directly contact the:
Board of Health and Board of Medical Practice
Vermont Department of Health
PO Box 70
Burlington, VT 05402-0070
802-657-4220
Toll free (in Vermont) 1-800-745-7371
Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living
Division of Licensing and Protection
103 South Main Street, Ladd Hall
Waterbury, VT 05611-2306
802-241-2345
Toll free (in Vermont) 1-800-564-1612
Your responsibilities as a patient:
• Keep appointments or call as soon as possible to cancel.
• Be considerate of other patients by respecting their privacy and limiting visitors.
• Observe safety regulations, including the smoke-free campus policy.
• Supply full and accurate personal information and information about your illness and past health to appropriate personnel and report unexpected changes to your condition to your health care providers.
• Recognize the effect of your lifestyle on your personal health.
• Work with your health care team to make informed health care decisions, develop a mutually agreed upon plan of care, and implement the plan.
• Let us know if you do not understand or cannot follow the instructions or proposed plan for your care.
• Be aware of what your health care insurance does and does not cover and assure that the financial obligations of your health care are fulfilled as promptly as possible.
• Follow the established policies and procedures of Copley Hospital.
HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices
Copley Hospital uses health information about you for treatment, to obtain payment for treatment, for administrative purposes, and to evaluate the quality of care you receive. Your health information is contained in a medical record that is the physical property of Copley Hospital.
We respect your right to privacy and make every effort to maintain confidentiality. According to the federal law named the "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act" (HIPAA), you have rights concerning the use of individually identifiable health information. Only individuals with a legitimate "need to know" may access, use or disclose patient information.
Read Copley's Notice of Privacy Practices.
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