Patient Rights & Responsibilities
Patient Rights
As your health care provider, Ozarks Healthcare is committed to the protection of each patient's rights. As a patient or the patient's representative, you are entitled to know your rights and to exercise them as follows:
Your Dignity: You have the right to be treated with dignity. You have the right to considerate, compassionate, and respectful care appropriate to your age in all stages of health or illness.
Your Care and Services: You have the right to expect that Ozarks Healthcare will give you necessary health services to the best of our ability, within our capability and mission, and in compliance with law and regulation.
You have the right to receive pastoral care or visits from a chaplain upon your request.
You have the right to pain management.
Consent: You have the right to consent to or refuse a treatment, as permitted by law and regulation, throughout your period of care. If you refuse a recommended treatment, you will receive other needed and available care. Your rights to accept or refuse medical or surgical treatments extend to foregoing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment or withholding resuscitative services.
You have the right to consent or decline to take part in research affecting your care. If you choose not to take part, you will receive the most effective care the hospital otherwise provides.
Your Care Decisions: Ozarks Healthcare respects your right to make health care decisions, based on your values, beliefs, and your personal, cultural, psychological, and spiritual preferences. You have the right to be well informed about your illness and to be informed in advance of possible treatments, the plan of care, likely outcomes, and to discuss this information with your doctor.
You have the right to have other persons such as family members be involved in your care decisions. You also have the right to limit any or all family or other person participation.
You have the right to be told of realistic alternatives when hospital care is no longer appropriate.
You have the right to obtain a second opinion from a licensed professional of your choice (which may be at your own expense).
Transfer: You have the right to be informed of risks, benefits, and alternatives when transfer or referral is recommended. You will not be transferred until the other institution agrees to accept you.
Communication: You have the right to have your physician and a family member notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
You have the right to language assistance so that you may receive communications regarding your rights, your medical condition, and other information critical to your care and care decisions, in your preferred language and in a way that you can understand.
If restrictions on communication are imposed, the reason will be explained by the staff or provider.
Ozarks Healthcare provides people with disabilities reasonable modifications and free appropriate auxiliary aids and services to communicate effectively with us, such as:
o Qualified sign language interpreters
o Written information in other formats (large print, audio, accessible electronic formats, other formats).
Ozarks Healthcare provides free language assistance services to people whose primary language is not English, which may include:
o Qualified interpreters
o Information written in other languages.
If you need reasonable modifications, appropriate auxiliary aids and services, or language assistance services, contact Jo Wagner at Extension 5389.
Identification: You have the right to know the names, professional qualifications and roles of people treating you.
Privacy and confidentiality: You have the right to privacy unless limited for clinical or safety indications, which may include privacy during procedures as well as for visitors, mail, and telephone use. The medical center, clinic, doctor and others caring for you will protect your privacy as much as possible.
You have the right to expect that treatment records are confidential unless you have given permission to release information or reporting is required or permitted by law. When we release records to others, such as insurers, we emphasize that records are confidential.
You have the right to review your medical records and to have the information explained, except when restricted by law.
Visitors: You have the right to refuse designated or all visitors including, but not limited to, a spouse, domestic partner, and other family members, or a friend. You may withdraw or deny the consent for visitation at any time. The hospital may limit or restrict visitation for clinical reasons.
Your Safety: You have the right to receive care in a safe setting, free from all forms of abuse, neglect, harassment, seclusion, exploitation, or other forms of endangerment.
You have the right to access protective and advocacy services through resources we can provide.
You have the right to freedom from restraints used in the provision of care, unless clinically necessary.
Your Environment: You have the right to maintain and use personal possessions to the maximum extent that space and safety permit and to have your property treated with respect.
You have the right to a safe environment that preserves dignity.
Rules, regulations, and relationships: You have the right to know about hospital rules that affect you and your treatment and about charges and payment methods.
You have the right to know if Ozarks Healthcare has relationships with outside parties that may influence your treatment and care. These relationships may be with educational institutions, other healthcare providers, or insurers.
Complaints: You have a right to voice a complaint regarding care or treatment that is (or fails to be) furnished and to receive a timely response to your complaint. If you have a question, concern, or complaint regarding your care at Ozarks Healthcare please discuss it with your nurse or the department director. If you feel your complaints have not been resolved or your rights not respected, you have the right to file a formal grievance with the hospital administrator at 417-257-6728.
You also have the right to file a complaint with the Missouri Department of Health:
P.O. Box 570, Jefferson City, MO
Phone: 800-392-0210
If you believe that Ozarks Healthcare has failed to provide services or discriminated in another way on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex, you can file a grievance with:
Jo Wagner Compliance Officer
1100 Kentucky Ave., West Plains, MO
Phone: 417-256-5669
Fax: 417-257-6770
j.wagner@ozhcare.com
You can file a grievance in person or by mail, fax, or email. If you need help filing a grievance, Jo Wagner, Compliance Officer is available to help you.
You can also file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, electronically through the Office for Civil Rights Complaint Portal, available at https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/portal/lobby.jsf, or by mail or phone at:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Room 509F, HHH Building
Washington, D.C. 20201
1-800-368-1019, 800-537-7697 (TDD)
Complaint forms are available at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/office/file/index.html.
In Arkansas, you can call 501-661-2000 or toll-free 1-800-462-0599 or write the Arkansas Department of Health, 4815 W Markham St., Slot 23, Little Rock, AR 72205.
Ozarks Healthcare is a Joint Commission-accredited health care organization. You have a right to report any concerns regarding patient care and/or safety directly to the Joint Commission:
- at http://www.jointcommission.org/, using the "Report a Patient Safety Event" link in the "Action Center" on the home page of the website
- by fax to 630-792-5636
- by mail to The Office of Quality and Patient Safety (OQPS), The Joint Commission, One Renaissance Boulevard, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Behavioral Healthcare clients who are receiving services that are funded by the Missouri Department of Mental Health, may file a complaint directly to Client Rights Monitor, Department of Mental Health, P.O. Box 687, Jefferson City, MO 65102.
Ozarks Healthcare will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, marital status, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or source of payment.
Patient Responsibilities
You are responsible for providing accurate and complete information about your health, including past illnesses, hospital stays, and use of medicine. You also are responsible for reporting perceived risks in your care and unexpected changes in your medical condition to the responsible practitioner.
You are responsible for asking questions when you do not understand what you have been told about your care or what you are expected to do.
You are responsible for following the treatment plan developed by your doctor. You should express any concerns you have about your ability to follow the proposed course of treatment. The hospital will make every effort to adapt the treatment plan to meet your specific needs and limitations. Where such adaptations are not recommended, you should understand the consequences of failing to follow the recommended course of treatment or of using other treatments.
If you believe you can't follow through with your treatment, you are responsible for telling your doctor.
If you refused treatment or fail to follow the doctor's instructions, you are responsible for the outcomes. Your health depends on the decisions you make in your daily life. You are responsible for recognizing the effect of lifestyle on your personal health.
You are responsible for following the hospital's rules and regulations concerning patient care and conduct.
You and your visitors are responsible for being considerate of other patients and hospital personnel by not making unnecessary noise, smoking, or causing distractions. You are responsible for respecting the property of other persons and that of the hospital.
You are responsible for providing information for insurance and for working with the hospital to arrange payment when needed.
If you have a written healthcare directive, you should provide a copy to the medical center, your family, and your doctor.
