PATIENT RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Medical care is a cooperative venture for patients and health care providers. You, as a patient, and the Student Health Center (SHC) staff have specific rights and responsibilities in relationship to each other.

As a patient, you have rights:

1. The right to humane care and treatment. You will be treated with respect, consideration and dignity. You can expect that your personal convictions and beliefs of the provider will not adversely affect your right to rational and appropriate care.

2. The right to accurate information, to the extent known, concerning diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of an illness or health-related condition. This includes the right to accurate written information about drug products or drug treatment for an illness. It will include appropriate alternatives to health service care.

3. The right to be treated only with your consent. No care will be provided to you without your consent.

4. The right to be informed of any research aspect of your care and to refuse to participate. Such refusal will not jeopardize your access to medical care and treatment.

5. The right to a second opinion regarding diagnosis or treatment. This includes seeking consultation with other providers. (However, consultation outside the SHC is the financial responsibility of the user).

6. The right to know who is counseling, caring for, or treating you. The practitioner’s name and professional qualifications should be visible or stated on introduction.

7. The right to information regarding the scope and availability of services, including information on after hours and emergency room care. This should be available to you in written form.

8. The right to information regarding fees for service, payment plans, and holds. Particularly notification as to what services may involve additional charges. If outside resources are needed, there will usually be a charge.

9. The right to confidentiality of your records (see medical record section). You have a right to not have your problem discussed in anyplace where it might be overheard by others.

As a patient, you have responsibilities:

1. Provide full information about your illness or problem to allow proper evaluation and treatment.

2. Ask sufficient questions to ensure appropriate comprehension of your illness or problem as well as the SHC recommendation for continuing care. If you find the care or course of treatment unacceptable for any reason, please discuss it with a member of the staff, the director, administrator, or place comments and suggestions in the suggestion box.

3. Show courtesy and respect to health care personnel and other patients.

4. Keep your appointments. Please cancel or reschedule as far in advance as possible, so that the time may be given to someone else.

5. To not give medication prescribed for you to others.

6. To communicate with your health care provider if your condition worsens or does not follow the expected course. We will contact you if there is any unexpected result from tests.

7. To pay for services billed to your account in a timely manner.

We keep a record of the health care services provided to you:

You may ask us to see and copy that record. You may ask us to correct that record. We will not disclose your record to others unless you direct us to do so or law authorizes or compels us to do so. You may get more information about your record at the SHC reception desk. Records are not shared with parents, professors, administrators, or potential employers.

Parents:

Should parents request information from SHC they will be told to contact you for the desired information. Only in life-threatening emergencies may information concerning the nature of complaints and/or diagnosis be given directly to parents.

Professors and administrators:

Should faculty members or administrators request information regarding your health, they will be told to contact you for the desired information. You should discuss directly with faculty member or administrator any circumstance in which a health problem or treatment may influence your attendance, academic performance or status.

Potential employers, graduate schools, professional schools:

Information from health records will not be supplied in answer to requests for information when it appears that this information will be used for employment screening, school admission or other non-medical purposed. We recognize that some routine authorizations may be obtained under duress, actual or implied, so this prohibition against release of information will be observed unless you give specific written instructions defining the nature of the information to be released.