Patient Rights and Responsibilities

Piedmont Columbus Regional is committed to serving patients with compassion, care, skill and respect. Piedmont Columbus Regional's policy is to respect the individuality and dignity of all patients and to honor, in accordance with law, an adult patient’s right to make informed decisions regarding treatment to include participation in end of life decisions. This includes an adult patient’s right to consent to, refuse, or alter treatment plans and the right to formulate advance directives which will govern, if you become incapacitated.

Patient Rights

• Patients will not be denied access to treatment or accommodations that are medically indicated on the basis of race, sex, age, creed, national origin. The patient will not be denied treatment needed to stabilize an emergency medical condition, regardless of ability to pay or the source of payment for such care.
• Patients have the right to privacy regarding information necessary for medical care and regarding the privacy of one's body. Patients have the right to expect all communications and records pertaining to one's care to be treated as confidential, and the right to access one's medical record in accordance with state law.
• Patients have the right to request privacy status while in the hospital. Under such circumstances no information about one's presence in the hospital will be provided to anyone.
• Patients have the right to proper and safe use of restraints when they are required in acute medical, surgical and behavioral management interventions.
• Patients have the right to the appropriate assessment, management of and education regarding one's pain.
• Patients have the right to freedom from abuse, neglect, exploitation or harassment.
• Patients have the right to care in a safe setting.
• Patients have the right to know the name of and talk with the physician and caregivers responsible for one's care and to receive information necessary to understand one's medical problem and planned treatment.
• Patients have the right to have a family member or representative of one's choice and one's own physician notified promptly of admission to the hospital.
• Patients have the right to receive visitors that they designate, including, but not limited to, a spouse, a domestic partner, another family member or a friend and the right to withdraw one's consent at any time. Visitation will not be restricted based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. At times the hospital may restrict or limit visitation for clinical reasons, including but not limited to: during periods of infectious outbreaks; if necessary due to the patient’s condition; visitors with colds, sore throats, signs of infection, or any communicable disease; number of visitors if excessive and causing disruption of patient care. The hospital accommodates the patient’s rights to religious and other spiritual services. The hospital respects the patient’s cultural and personal values, beliefs and preferences.
• Patients have the right to examine and receive an explanation of one's bill.
• Patients have the right to give or withhold informed consent to the hospital for the production or use of recordings, films, or other images of the patient for purposes other than one's care.
• Patients have the right to reasonable attention to complaints and grievances when communicated to any member of the health care team.
   

Patient Responsibilities

• Patients have the responsibility to provide, to the best of their knowledge, accurate and complete information about one's present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to one's health.
• Patients have the responsibility to ask questions when they do not understand what they have been told about their health care and what they are expected to do.
• Patients have the responsibility for following the treatment plan developed with the practitioner. If they refuse treatment or fail to follow the practitioner’s instructions, they are responsible for the outcomes and they may be discharged from the hospital.
• Patients have the responsibility for promptly meeting one's financial obligation and commitments agreed to with the hospital. The patient, family and visitors are responsible for following the hospital’s rules and regulations.
• The patient, family and visitors are expected to be considerate of other patients and hospital personnel by not making unnecessary noise, smoking, or causing distractions. Patients, families and visitors are responsible for respecting the privacy and property of other persons and that of the hospital and its employees.
   

Advance Directive

Piedmont Columbus Regional recognizes the importance of a patient’s participation in all aspects of their care. Executing an advance directive is one option that expresses personal health care choices. Advance directives are documents written in advance of serious illness which state patient choices about medical treatment or name someone to make those choices for patients if they are unable to do so. The Patient Self Determination Act (effective Dec. 1, 1991) mandates that all health care institutions provide adult patients with written information about their rights to make decisions concerning their medical care. Piedmont Columbus Regional’s Patient Bill of Rights, Patient Responsibilities and Georgia Advance Directive Healthcare form are included in the Patient Care Information that is given to patients on admission for their convenience and information. This in no way indicates that Piedmont Columbus Regional requires or requests a patient to execute an Advance Directive. The execution and possession of an Advance Directive is a completely personal choice. The decision is the patient's.

Download the Georgia Advance Directive