Patient Rights

You and / or your chosen representative have the right to be involved in decisions about ongoing care, treatment, services or discharge. This includes the right to participate in the development and implementation of your plan of care. This is based on the care, treatment and services that are required. The treatment, care and services will be provided within the hospital’s capability and mission. These services will also be in compliance with laws and regulations.

You will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability of any sort, including a language barrier.

As allowed by state law, you have the right to have your family or representative involved in care, treatment and service decisions. Your representative has the right to make informed decisions regarding your care should you be unable to make decisions. These rights include being informed of your health status, being involved in care planning and treatment, and being able to request or refuse treatment. This right must not be construed as a mechanism to demand the provision of treatment or services deemed medically unnecessary or inappropriate. As allowed by law, you have the right to a legally responsible representative to make decisions for your care, treatment and service if you are unable to make those decisions. These rights include being able to request or refuse treatment. This right does not give a patient the right to demand treatment or services that are not deemed medically necessary or appropriate.

You and / or your chosen representative have the right to be informed of your health status. This includes the right of being informed of your diagnosis and prognosis.

You have the right to know the reasons for transfer either within or outside the hospital.
You have the right to know the name of the doctor or other practitioner primarily responsible for your care, treatment, and services in a timely basis. You have the right to know the professional status of any person providing care and services and the reasons for any proposed change in professional status of your care provider.

You have the right to have a family member or representative of your choice and your physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital. You have the right to have your own physician notified of your admission to the hospital. Please advise a hospital staff member of the individual(s) you would like contacted and how to reach him or her.

You have the right to receive care in a safe setting and to refuse care, treatment and services as allowed by law. This includes the decision to forgo or withhold life-sustaining treatment or to withhold resuscitative treatment. Whether or not you have an advance directive does not determine your access to services. When you are not legally responsible, as allowed by law, your representative has the right to refuse care, treatment, and services on your behalf.

You have the right to be free from restraints of any form that are not medically necessary or are used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.

You have the right to visitation by family or friends regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. You have the right to withdraw or deny such consent at any time.

Any restrictions of visitation will be based on patient clinical need and will be communicated by the caregivers.

You have the right to personal privacy and to have your privacy respected.
You have the right to an environment of care that preserves your human dignity and supports a positive self-image.

You have the right to expect telephone and mail service as appropriate to the setting.
You have the right to expect a space for private telephone conversations that are appropriate to your needs and the care, treatment, and services provided.

You have the right to your personal safety and security and also the safety and security of your property.

You have the right to sufficient storage space to meet your personal needs. You may keep and use personal clothing and other items unless this infringes on others’ rights or is medically or therapeutically contraindicated.

The right to formulate advance directives and to have hospital staff and practitioners who provide care in the hospital comply with these directives. You have the right to refuse care, treatment and services as allowed by law. This includes the decision to forgo or withhold life-sustaining treatment or to withhold resuscitative treatment. Whether or not you have an advance directive does not determine your access to services. When you are not legally responsible, as allowed by law, your representative has the right to refuse care, treatment, and services on your behalf.

You have the right to know if the hospital will honor the advance directive supplied by you within the limits of the law and the hospital’s capabilities. Advance directives will be honored for inpatient, observation, and Cancer Center patients. For all other patients, if you present with your advance directive, the staff will ask you if it is your wish for it to be in effect for the services being rendered. If it is your desire to have it honored, then a conversation must occur with your doctor to determine if your advance directive can be honored.

You have the right to review and revise your advance directive. If you request, you have the right to have help forming an advance directive.

Columbus Regional Hospital participates in the Indiana Donor Network. You may ask your nurse for this number. You have the right to have your wishes honored with regard to organ donation within the limits of the law or the hospital’s capacity. Your family has the right of informed consent for donation of organs and tissues.

You have the right to have your cultural, gender, psychosocial, and spiritual preferences respected. You also have the right to have your personal dignity, values, beliefs and preferences respected. You have the right to pastoral and other spiritual services.

You have the right to be informed of pain management and to have pain treated as effectively as possible. You have the right to have your pain assessed and managed. You have the right to expect that all health care givers have received education to ensure appropriate assessment and management of pain. You and your family have the right to receive education about your role in managing pain. This includes potential limitations and side effects of pain management.

You and / or your chosen representative have the right to receive information about the proposed care, treatment, services, medications, interventions, or procedures. This information is to help you make an informed consent to treatment decision prior to any treatment or procedure being started. You have the right to be informed of potential benefits, risks, or side effects. This includes potential problems related to recuperation, and the chances of achieving care, treatment, and service goals. You also have the right to know any reasonable alternatives to the course of the proposed treatment. You have the right to be fully informed of and to consent or refuse to participate in any unusual, experimental or research project without compromising access to services. You have the right to be informed of risks, benefits, and side effects related to alternatives. You have the right to be informed of possible results of not receiving care, treatment, and services. This information is given to you so that you can be involved in the current and future decisions about your care. You have the right to be involved in decisions and in solving concerns about your care.

You have the right to access and request amendment to your own health information as allowed by law, within a reasonable time frame. You have the right to receive an accounting of disclosures about your own health information as allowed by law.

You have the right to have your information kept confidential. You have the right to know of any limitations on the confidentiality of information learned from you or about you.

You have the right to consent to recording or filming made for reasons other than for identification, diagnosis, or treatment. You have the right to request that recording or filming be stopped. You have the right to rescind consent for use up until a reasonable time before the recording or film is used.

You have the right to receive written information that is appropriate to your age, understanding, and your chosen language. Appropriate provisions will be made for you if you have vision, speech, hearing, language or cognitive impairments.

You have the right to effective communication including the provision of interpretation (including translation services) as needed.

The right to be free from all forms of abuse or harassment. You have the right to be free from real or perceived mental, physical, sexual, and verbal abuse, neglect, or exploitation from anyone. This includes staff, students, volunteers, other patients, visitors, or family members. You have the right to have all allegations, observations or suspected case of abuse, neglect or exploitation investigated. You have the right to access protective services/intervention (that is, guardianship and advocacy services, conservatorship, and child or adult protective services).

You or your chosen representative, have the right to be given information (names, addresses, and telephone numbers) of state client advocacy groups when requested.

You have the right to know of any experimental, research or educational activities involved in your care or treatment. You have the right to be fully informed of and to consent or refuse to participate in any unusual, experimental or research project without compromising your access to services. You have the right to consent or refuse to be involved in research protocols.

You have the right to expect that the hospital will review all research protocols in relation to its mission, values and other guidelines.

You have the right to know that refusal to be involved or to stop being involved at any time will not affect your access to care, treatment, and services. You have the right to know that your personal and private information will be held in confidence. All information shared is in your medical record along with your consent form and will be held in confidence.

You have the right to access information contained in your medical record within a reasonable time frame. 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.

You have the right to access the cost of services provided, itemized when possible, within a reasonable period of time. You may ask for an estimate of the amount you will be charged for nonemergency medical services to be provided to you within an established, regulated time frame.

You have the right to be informed of the source of the hospitals reimbursement for your services and any limitations which may be placed upon your care. This would include the payment that your insurance carrier is paying and any denial of payment from your insurance carrier.

You and your family have the right to be informed about the complaint resolution process and who you may contact to issue a complaint. You and your family have the right to voice complaints about your care. You have the right to have complaints reviewed, and when possible, resolved. You and your family can freely voice complaints and suggest changes. You can do this without being subject to coercion, discrimination, reprisal, or unreasonable interruption of care, treatment or services.

Your complaints/concerns can be shared with leadership in the area/department of your services, with the Compliance/Civil Rights Officer /hotline 812-375-3600 or with the Patient Representative, accessible by the Hospital Operator. You and your family have the right to file a complaint with the state authority.

Medicare patients may choose to go directly to the state Quality Improvement Organization (QIO). The QIO’s name, address and phone number are as follows: KEPRO, 5201 West Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 900, Tampa, Florida, 33609: Phone: 855-408-8557; Fax: 844-834-7130.

All patients may choose to contact directly the Indiana State Department of Health, 2 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46204; Phone: 317-233-1325.

You may contact the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights: electronically: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/complaintintro.html. or by mail- US Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue SW., Room 509F, HH Building, Washington, DC 20201. Complaint forms are available at: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/office/file/index.html. Complaints must be filed within 180 days of the alleged discrimination.