Rights & Responsibilities

You Have the Right to the Best Care

1. Considerate and respectful care, and to be made comfortable. You have the right to have your cultural, psychosocial, spiritual and personal values, beliefs and preferences respected.
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 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 other physicians and non-physicians who will see you.
4. Receive information about your health status, 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 communications 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.
5. 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 course for treatment or non-treatment 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 members of the medical staff, to the extent permitted by law.
7. 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.
8. Reasonable responses to any reasonable request 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 intractable 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 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.
11. Have personal privacy respected. Case discussion, consultation, examination and treatments 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.
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. Designate a support person and visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the support person or visitor is related by blood, marriage or registered domestic partner status, unless: 
15. No visitors are allowed. 
16. 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 visitors to the health facility, or would significantly disrupt the operations of the facility. 
17. You have told the health facility staff that you no longer want a particular person to visit. 
18. 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.
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 comply with federal law and be disclosed in the hospital policy on visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any person living in your household and any support person pursuant to federal law.
20. Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital’s bill, regardless of the source of payment. 
21. Exercise these rights without regard to sex, race, color, gender identity or expression, 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. lf you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you may do so by writing or calling: PLCMMC Torrance, ATTN: Risk Management, 4101 Torrance Blvd., Torrance, CA 9050, 310-303-5025. Notification of your grievance is made to our grievance management team, and you will receive a written response within 30 days. The written response will contain the name of the person to contact at the hospital, the steps taken to investigate the grievance, the results of the grievance process and the date of completion. Concerns regarding quality of care or premature discharge also will be referred to the appropriate Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Organization (PRO).
23. File a complaint with The Joint Commission (TJC) or the County Department of Public Health if your concerns regarding patient care and safety are not addressed. You may contact The Joint Commission’s Office of Quality and Patient Safety by mail at The Joint Commission, One Renaissance Blvd., Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181; or online at www.jointcommission.org, then click “Report patient safety event.” The County Department of Public Health’s phone number and address are: 3400 Aerojet Ave., Suite 323, El Monte, CA 91731, 626-569-3724.