Access to Care: Patients have the right to impartial access to medically indicated treatments or accommodations, regardless of age, race, creed, sex, national origin, religion, source of payment, or presentation of complaints. The patient has the right to expect emergency procedures to be implemented without unnecessary delay.

Respect: Patients have the right to considerate and respectful care given by competent personnel.

Dignity: Patients have the right to dignity including consideration of psychosocial, spiritual, and cultural variables that influence perceptions of their illness.

Privacy and Confidentiality: Patients have the right, within the law, to personal and informational privacy, including to:

1. Refuse to talk with or see anyone not officially connected with the hospital, or persons officially connected with the hospital but not directly involved with their care;
2. Wear appropriate personal clothing and religious or other symbolic items as long as they do not interfere with diagnostic procedures or treatments;
3. Be interviewed and examined in surroundings designed to assure reasonable audiovisual privacy. This includes the right to have a person of one’s own gender preference present during a physical examination, treatment, or procedure performed by a health professional;
4. Expect that any discussion or consultation involving their care will be conducted discreetly, and that individuals not directly involved in their care will not be included without the patient’s permission; have their medical records read only by those individuals directly involved in their treatment or the monitoring of its quality, and by other individuals only on their written authorization or that of their legally authorized representative and;
5. Expect all written communications and other records pertaining to their care, including the source of payment for treatment, to be treated as confidential.

Personal Safety:

1. Patients have the right to expect reasonable safety in terms of hospital practices and the environment in which care is provided, including the expectation of an environment designed to reduce risks to patient safety and to prevent abuse, neglect or harassment from staff, other patients or visitors.
2. Patients have the right to good quality care and the maintenance of high professional standards. This is best assured by involving patients as active members of the care team.
3. During hospitalization, it is also expected that patients, their families and visitors will have reasonable and responsible behaviors.
4. Smoking is not permitted within the hospital or while on our campus, in our medical practices and/or parking areas. This includes all forms of tobacco (cigarettes, cigars, pipes, snuff, chewing tobacco and smokeless tobacco). When an individual smokes, it poses a fire risk to all and appropriate measures to minimize the risk of fire will be taken.
5. Patients 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. The term “restraint” includes either a physical restraint or a drug that is being used as a restraint. A physical restraint is any manual method or physical or mechanical device, material, or equipment attached or adjacent to the patients body that he or she cannot easily remove that restricts freedom of movement used to control behavior or to restrict the patient’s freedom of movement and is not a standard treatment for the patient’s medical or psychiatric condition.

Identity: Patients have the right to know the identity, professional status and professional relationships of individuals providing services, and to know which physician or other practitioner is primarily responsible for their care. Participation by patients in clinical training programs or in the gathering of data for research purposes is voluntary.

Information: Patients have the right to be informed about the outcomes of their care, including unanticipated outcomes. Upon request, patients, or the patient designee, shall be provided access to all information contained in the patient’s medical records. A patient’s access to medical records may be restricted by the patient’s attending physician. If the physician restricts the patient’s access to information in the patient’s medical record, the physician shall record the reasons on the patient’s medical record. Access shall be restricted only for sound medical reason. A patient’s designee may have access to the information in the patient’s medical records even if the attending physician restricts the patient’s access to those records. This information shall be communicated in terms patients can be expected to understand.

Communications: Patients have the right to verbal and written communications and access to people outside the hospital including individuals and /or agencies that are authorized to act on the patient’s behalf to assert or protect their rights. When the patient does not understand the predominant language of the community or is hearing impaired, access to an interpreter will be provided. Other impaired individuals have the right to assistive devices or animals. Patients have the right to have a family member or representative of his or her choice and his or her own physician notified promptly of his or her admission to the hospital. Patients have the right to designate visitors who shall receive the same visitation privileges as the patient’s immediate family members, regardless of whether the visitors are legally related to the patient by blood or marriage.

Consent: Patients (18 years of age or emancipated minors) have the right to informed participation in decisions involving their health care.

1. To the degree possible, this should be based in a clear, concise explanation of their conditions and of all proposed technical procedures, including the possibilities of any risk of mortality or serious side effects, problems related to recuperation, and probability of success. Except during emergencies where a delay would be likely to increase the risk of death or permanent injury, the physician will obtain the necessary informed consent prior to the start of any procedure or treatment, or both.
2. Patients will not be subjected to any procedure without their voluntary, competent, and understanding consent, or that of their legally authorized representative.
3. Where medically significant alternatives for care or treatment exist, patients will be informed. Patients may wish to delegate decision-making to specific persons. To the degree permitted by state law and to the maximum extent practicable, the hospital will respect the patient’s wishes.
4. Patients have the right to know who is responsible for authorizing and performing procedures or treatments. Patients will be informed if the hospital proposes to engage in or perform human experimentation or treatment, and have the right to refuse to participate.
5. Rarely, certain human experiments or treatments may receive a waiver from the Catawba Valley Institutional Review board of the requirement to obtain the informed consent of the patient. The Catawba Valley Institutional Review Board (CVIRB) is an administrative body created to monitor the protection of human subjects who are patients of Catawba Valley Medical Center to ensure that ethical norms are met. The CVIRB is required to ensure this waiver of informed consent complies with pertinent federal regulations established by the U.S. Department of health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Additionally, for emergency research involving a waiver of informed consent, the hospital may be required to sponsor community consultation meetings about the research, to publicly disclose the research, and to provide notice of the proposed research to the North Carolina Medical Care Commission.

Consultation: Patients have the right to consult with a specialist. NOTE: the patient may be responsible for the expenses related to specialist consultation if the consult is not determined to be medically necessary by their insurance representatives.

Participation in the Plan of Care: Patients have the right to participate in the development, implementation and revision of his/her plan of care. Patients may refuse treatment to the extent permitted by law and are informed of the medical consequences of such refusal. Patients have the right to expect that hospital staff and physicians will follow the patient’s wishes as directed by a legal living will, health care power of attorney or advance instruction for mental health treatment.

Knowledge of Continuing Care Needs: Patients may not be transferred to other facilities unless they have received complete explanation of the need for the transfer and the transfer is acceptable to the patient and the other facility. Patients have the right to be informed by the responsible practitioner or their delegate of any continuing health care requirements following discharge from the hospital and the means for meeting them.

Comfort: Patients have the right to reasonable response to reports of pain and interventions directed to optimize pain management. Patients have the right not to be awakened by hospital staff unless it is medically necessary. Patients have the right to medical and nursing treatment that avoids unnecessary physical and mental discomfort and to be free from needless duplication of medical and nursing procedures.

Financial Explanation: Patients have the right to request and receive an itemized and detailed explanation of their total bill for services rendered in the hospital. Patients have the right to full information and counseling on the availability of known financial resources for his/her health care. Patients have the right, when possible, to timely notice prior to termination of eligibility for reimbursement by the third party payer for the cost of care.

Hospital Rules and Regulations: Patients have the right to access to the hospital rules and regulations applicable to conduct as a patient. Patients are entitled to information about the hospital mechanism for the initiation, review, and resolution of patient complaints.

Grievances: Patients have the right to expect that care and services are provided in a timely, reasonable and consistent manner. When a patient issue cannot be resolved promptly by the staff present, the patient has the right to file a formal, written or verbal grievance.

Children and Teens

1. Children and teens have the right to make choices and let our staff know how they want to be involved in their care. They are also entitled to treatment by health care professionals who are knowledgeable about caring for children and teenagers. Children’s right to grow, play, learn, rest and feel secure will be respected. An adult family member will be allowed to spend the night in the hospital with a child or teen-aged patient.
2. Parents and guardians are responsible for providing the hospital with information about their child’s health including the present complaint, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to the health of the child. They are encouraged to take part in the child’s care and ask questions if they do not understand something about their child’s treatment.

General Rights:

1. All departments at Catawba Valley Medical Center and the Catawba Valley Medical Group are licensed and regulated by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health Service Regulation. This state agency is responsible for the enforcement of rules applicable to hospitals. If a patient and/or patient’s designee wished, the agency may be contacted as listed below.
   
   North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
   Division of Health Service Regulation
   Acute and Home Care Branch
   2717 Mail Service Center
   Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-2712
   Phone: 919-733-1610
2. The Governor’s Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities has the power to investigate complaints at any 24-hour behavioral health facility in the state.
   Phone: 800-821-6922
3. All departments at Catawba Valley Medical Center and at the Catawba Valley Medical Group are accredited by the Joint Commission. The Joint Commission’s mission is to monitor health care organization’s compliance with patient quality and safety of care standards. If a patient and/or patient’s designee wishes, the Joint Commission may be contacted at 1-800-994-6610 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
4. Along with patient rights come patient responsibilities. These include respecting the rights of other patients by abiding by hospital and office policies. Patients also have the responsibility to actively participate in their care and to provide accurate and complete information. See Catawba Valley Medical Group Policy GO-13 for additional detail.

Review Dates: 08/03/2005, 09/10/2002, 01/09/07

Authorization for the disclosure of protected health information from CVMC (download)