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Patient Resources

Patient Rights

The employees of Sonora Regional Medical Center consider you a partner in your hospital care and are here to safeguard your rights as a patient. Your informed participation in treatment decisions and open communication with your doctor and other health care providers enable us to provide quality care.

You have the right to:

  1. Considerate, respectful care and to be made comfortable. You have the right to respect for your cultural, psychosocial, spiritual, and personal values, beliefs and preferences.
  2. Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
  3. Know the name of the physician who has primary responsibility for coordinating your care and the names and professional relationships of other physicians and non physicians who will see you. You have the right to know the reasons for any proposed change in the professional staff responsible for your care.
  4. 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 lifesustaining treatment.
  5. Make decisions regarding medical care and receive as much information as you may need about any proposed treatment or procedure 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 nontreatment and the risks involved in each, and the name of the person who will carry out the procedure or treatment.
  6. 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 physicians, to the extent permitted by law.
  7. Be advised if the hospital and/or personal physician 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.
  8. Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
  9. 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 severe chronic pain with methods that include the use of opiates.
  10. 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 members and practitioners who provide care in the hospital shall comply with these directives. All patient rights apply to the person who has legal responsibility to make decisions regarding medical care on your behalf.
  11. 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 person. 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 semiprivate rooms.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
  15. 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. You have the right to know the reasons for your transfer either within or outside the hospital.
  16. Be informed by the physician or a delegate of the physician of continuing health care requirements and options following discharge from 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 with this information also.
  17. Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
  18. Designate visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitor is related by blood or marriage, 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.

    19. However, a health facility may establish reasonable restrictions upon visitation, including restrictions upon the hours of visitation and number of visitors.

  19. Have your wishes considered, if you lack decision-making capacity, for the purposes of determining who may visit. The method of that consideration will be disclosed in the hospital policy on visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any persons living in your household.
  20. Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital's bill regardless of the source of payment. You have the right to know the relationship(s) of the hospital to other persons or organizations participating in the provision or your care. You have the right to be informed of the hospital's reimbursement for services and of any limitations which may be placed upon your care.
  21. Exercise these rights without regard to sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, educational background, economic status or the source of payment for care.
  22. File a grievance. If you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you may do so by writing or calling:

    23. Sonora Regional Medical Center

    Customer Service

    1000 Greenley Road

    Sonora, CA 95370

    209.536.3385

    The grievance committee will review each grievance and provide you with a written response. The written responses 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. You may refer concerns regarding quality of care or premature discharge to Lumetra, the Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Organization (PRO).

  23. File a complaint with the California Department of Health Services, regardless of whether you use the hospital's grievance process. The California Department of Health Service's phone number and address is:

    California Department of Health Services

    7801 Folsom Blvd.

    Sacramento, CA 95826

    800.554.0354

    916.229.3400

    *The hearing impaired may use the TDD at 800.735.2929

These rights incorporate the requirements of The Joint Commission; Title 22, California Code of Regulations, Section 70707; Health and Safety Code, Sections 1262.6, 1288.4 and 124960; and 42 C.F.R. Section 482.13 (Medicare Conditions of Participation), as provided in the Consent Manual, 2003, California Healthcare Association.

The public may contact The Joint Commission's Office of Quality Monitoring to report any concerns or register complaints about a Joint Commission-accredited health care organization by either calling 800.994.6610 or e-mailing complaint@jcaho.org.

Patient Responsibilities

The safety of health care delivery is enhanced by the involvement of the patient—as appropriate to his or her condition—as a partner in the health care process. In addition, hospitals are entitled to reasonable and responsible behavior on the part of the patient and their families.

Responsibilities include at least the following:

  • Providing information. The patient is responsible for providing, to the best of his or her knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications and other matters relating to his or her health. The patient and family are responsible for reporting perceived risks in their care and unexpected changes in the patient's condition. The patient and family are encouraged to participate in all decisions about treatment. The patient is encouraged to ask a trusted family member to be an advocate. The patient and family help the hospital improve its understanding of the patient's environment by providing feedback about service needs and expectations.
  • Asking questions. Patients are responsible for asking questions when they do not understand what they have been told about their care or what they are expected to do. Patients are encouraged to pay attention to the care they are receiving, making sure they are getting the right treatments and medications by the right health care professional. Do not assume anything. Patients are encouraged to educate themselves about their diagnosis, medical tests they will undergo and their treatment plan.
  • Following instructions. The patient and family are responsible for following the care, service or treatment plan developed. They should express any concerns they have about their ability to follow or comply with the proposed care plan or course of treatment. Every effort is made to adapt the plan to the patient's specific needs and limitations. When such adaptations to the treatment plan are not recommended, the patient and family are responsible for understanding the consequences of the treatment alternatives and not following the proposed course.
  • Accepting consequences. The patient and family are responsible for the outcomes if they do not follow the care, service or treatment plan.
  • Following rules and regulations. The patient and family are responsible for following hospital rules and regulations concerning patient care and conduct.
  • Showing respect and consideration. Patients and families are responsible for being considerate of the hospital's personnel and property.
  • Meeting financial commitments. The patient and family are responsible for promptly meeting any financial obligation agreed to with the hospital.

The patient's family or surrogate decision maker assumes the above responsibility for the patient if the patient has been found by his or her physician to be incapable of understanding these responsibilities, has been judged incompetent in accordance with the law or exhibits a communication barrier.

Patients are responsible for being considerate of other patients, helping control noise and disturbances, following smoking policies, and respecting others' property.

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