Patient Rights & Responsibilities

You are responsible for and have the right to:

1. Considerate and respectful care, and to be made comfortable. You have the right to respect for your cultural, psychosocial, spiritual, and personal values, beliefs and preferences. You should be considerate and respectful of other patients and hospital personnel.
2. Have effective communication for critical information in a manner you understand and that meets your communications needs (both verbal and written). This is especially important when you receive education, information from your physician about your diagnosis, prognosis, treatment or consent for treatment, discharge planning or when you are discussing complex billing or insurance matters with hospital staff. Language interpreters and sign-language interpreters are available to you at no charge. If needed, please request this service from your nurse or call the hospital operator.
3. Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
4. Know the name and/or professional status of the licensed health care practitioner acting within the scope of his or her professional licensure, who has primary responsibility for coordinating your care, and the names and professional relationships of physicians and non-physicians who will see you. The right to know the reason for change in the professional staff. Know that all physicians are members of the medical staff and are not employees of the hospital. This includes the radiologists, emergency department physicians, pathologists, anesthesiologists, and the like. All physicians bill separately for their services.
5. Receive information about your health status, diagnosis, prognosis, course of treatment, prospects for recovery and outcomes of care (including unanticipated outcomes) in terms you can understand. You have the right to effective communication and to participate in the development and implementation of your plan of care. You have the right to participate in ethical questions that arise in the course of your care, including issues of conflict resolution, withholding resuscitative services, and forgoing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.
6. Make decisions regarding medical care and receive as much information about any proposed treatment or procedure as you may need in order to give informed consent or to refuse a course of treatment. Except in emergencies, this information shall include a description of the procedure or treatment, the medically significant risks involved, alternate courses of treatment or non- treatment and the risks involved in each, and the name of the person who will carry out the procedure or treatment. Please ask questions if you do not understand your diagnosis or treatment plan.
7. Request or refuse treatment, to the extent permitted by law. However, you do not have the right to demand inappropriate or medically unnecessary treatment or services. You have the right to leave the hospital even against the advice of members of the medical staff, to the extent permitted by law. You have the responsibility to accept the outcome and consequences of your decision to not follow the recommended treatment. You should express any concerns about your ability to follow the recommended treatment to your physician.
8. Be advised if the hospital/licensed health care practitioner acting within the scope of his or her professional licensure proposes to engage in or perform human experimentation affecting your care or treatment. You have the right to refuse to participate in such research projects.
9. Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
10. Appropriate assessment and management of your pain, information about pain, pain relief measures and to participate in pain management decisions. You may request or reject the use of any or all modalities to relieve pain, including opiate medication, if you suffer from severe chronic intractable pain. The doctor may refuse to prescribe the opiate medication, but if so, must inform you that there are physicians who specialize in the treatment of pain with methods that include the use of opiates.
11. Formulate advance directives. This includes designating a decision maker if you become incapable of understanding a proposed treatment or become unable to communicate your wishes regarding care. Hospital staff and practitioners who provide care in the hospital shall comply with these directives. All patients’ rights apply to the person who has legal responsibility to make decisions regarding medical care on your behalf. If you would like information about advance health care directives, contact our Case Management Department at 630-801-5857.
12. Have personal privacy respected. Case discussion, consultation, examination and treatment are confidential and should be conducted discreetly. You have the right to be told the reason for the presence of any individual. You have the right to have visitors leave prior to an examination and when treatment issues are being discussed. Privacy curtains will be used in semi-private rooms.
13. Confidential treatment of all communications and records pertaining to your care and stay in the hospital. You will receive a separate “Notice of Privacy Practices” that explains your privacy rights in detail and how we may use and disclose your protected health information.
14. Receive care in a safe setting, free from mental, physical, sexual or verbal abuse and neglect, exploitation or harassment. You have the right to access protective and advocacy services including notifying government agencies of neglect or abuse. Refer to #27, #28, and #29 below for instructions.
15. Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline,
    convenience or retaliation by staff.
16. Reasonable continuity of care and to know in advance the time and location of appointments as well as the identity of the persons providing the care.
17. Be informed by the physician, or a delegate of the physician, of continuing health care requirements and options following discharge and/or transfer within or outside the hospital. You have the right to be involved in the development and implementation of your discharge plan. Upon your request, a friend or family member may be provided this information also. You have the right to file a grievance if you feel you are being discharged too early.
18. Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient. You should follow the hospital’s rules and regulations concerning patient conduct. Smoking is only permitted outside in designated areas, requires your physician’s approval and health facility or staff escort. You should respect the property of other persons and of the hospital.
19. Designate a support person as well as visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitor is related by blood, marriage, or registered domestic partner status, unless:
    • No visitors are allowed.
    • The facility reasonably determines that the presence of a particular visitor would endanger the health or safety of a patient, a member of the health facility staff, or other visitor to the health facility, or would significantly disrupt the operations of the facility.
    • You have told the health facility staff that you no longer want a particular person to visit.
      However, a health facility may establish reasonable restrictions upon visitation, including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and number of visitors. The health facility must inform you (or your support person, where appropriate) of your visitation rights, including any clinical restrictions or limitations. The health facility is not permitted to restrict, limit, or otherwise deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.
20. Have your wishes considered, if you lack decision-making capacity, for the purposes of determining who may visit. The method of that consideration will comply with federal law and be disclosed in the hospital policy on visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any persons living in your household and any support person pursuant to federal law.
21. Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital’s bill regardless of the source of payment. The right to be informed of the source of the hospital’s reimbursement for his/her services, and of any limitations which may be placed upon his/her care.
22. The patient has the right to access their medical records, including current medical records, upon an oral or written request, in the form or format requested by the individual. If it is readily producible in such form and format (including in an electronic form or format when such medical records are maintained electronically); or if not, in a readable hard copy form or such other form or format as agreed by the facility and the individual, and within a reasonable timeframe. The hospital must not frustrate the legitimate efforts of individuals to gain access to their own medical records and must actively seek to meet these requests as quickly as its record keeping system permits.
23. The relationship(s) of the hospital to other persons or organizations participating in the provisions of his/her care.
24. The right to be informed of the source of the hospital’s reimbursement for his/her services, and of any limitations which may be placed upon his/her care.
25. The patients’ family has the right of consent for tissue and organ donation (see organ donation).
26. Be free of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status.
27. File a grievance. If you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you may do so by writing, calling or visiting: Mercy Medical Center, 1325 N. Highland Avenue, Aurora, IL 60506, 630-859-2222.

    The grievance committee will review each grievance and provide you with a written response within seven (7) business days. The written response will contain the name of a person to contact at the hospital, the steps taken to investigate the grievance, the results of the grievance process, and the date of completion of the grievance process. Concerns regarding quality of care or premature discharge will also be referred to the appropriate Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Organization (PRO).

28. File a health care complaint. Contact the Illinois Department of Public Health, Office of Health Care Regulation (OHCR) and file a complaint by phone, mail, e-mail, online, or fax.

29. Report a patient safety concern, complaint or event to an accreditation agency. Contact Joint Commission online, by phone, or mail.

This Patient Rights listing incorporates the requirements of the Joint Commission: Title 22, Illinois Chapter 410 – Public Health 410 ILCS 50/ – Medical Patient Rights Act, 42 C.F.R. Section 482.13 (Medicare Conditions of Participation).