13. Legal right to refuse any drug, test procedure, or treatment.
14. Legal right to both personal and informational privacy with respect to: the
hospital staff, other doctors, residents, interns and medical students, researches,
nurses, other hospital personnel, and other patients.
15. Right of access to people outside the health care facility by means of visitors
and telephone. Right of parents to stay with children and relatives to stay with
terminally ill patients 24 hours a day.
16. Legal right to leave the health care facility, regardless of physical condition or
financial status, although a request for signature of release documenting
departure against the medical judgment of the patient's doctor or the hospital
may be made.
17. Right not to be transferred to another facility, unless one has received a
complete explanation of the desirability and need for the transfer, the other
facility has accepted the patient for transfer, and the patient has agreed to
transfer. If the patient does not agree, the patient has the right to a consultant's
opinion and the desirability of transfer.
18. Right to be notified of discharge at least 1 day before it is accomplished, to
demand a consultation by an expert on the desirability of discharge, and to have
a person of the patient's choice notified.
19. Right to examine and receive and itemized and detailed explanation of one's
total bill regardless of source of payment.
20. Right to competent counseling to help one obtain financial assistance from public
or private sources.
21. Right to a timely prior notice of the termination of one's eligibility for
reimbursement for the expense of his/her care by any third-party payer.
22. Right at the termination of one's day stay to a complete copy of the information in
one's medical record.
23. Right to have 24-hour-a-day access to a patient's rights advocate who may act
on behalf of the patient to assert or protect the rights set out in this document.
Figure 1-4. Patient's Bill of Rights (concluded).
MD0066
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