Patient Rights & Responsibilities

Patient and Family Rights

You have the right to:

Receive care regardless of your age, race, nation of origin, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, cultural background, economic status, education, disability, illness, payment source or ability to pay.

• Receive a copy of your rights and responsibilities
• Receive care even if you can’t pay for care
• Receive care based on your needs

Give and get information about your care

• Choose a support person you want to visit or speak up for you
• Have your family or support person and doctor told as soon as possible that you are in the hospital
• Know the names of your caregivers (doctors, nurses or any other person helping in your care)
• Receive information about your sickness and treatment in the language you want
• Receive “An Important Message from Medicare” within 2 days of being in the hospital if you are a Medicare beneficiary
• Receive your health information in a fair amount of time.

Help us plan your care

• Be told by your doctor about your illness, treatment and chances of healing
• Help make the plans for your care, including taking care of your pain
• Help make the plans for your care after your hospital stay

Say “Yes” or “No” to care

• Receive the facts, including any risks about your care, so that you can say “yes” or “no” to care (this is called informed consent)
• Make an advance directive (including a psychiatric advance directive), if you are 18 years old or older. An advance directive is a set of directions that lets you choose what you would like to happen to you if you become too sick and cannot make choices about your care.

Have private and safe care

• Have your medical information kept private
• Receive care in a safe setting, free from all forms of abuse, harassment or neglect
• Only be placed in control devices (which are called restraints) or in a safe room (called seclusion) by specially trained staff and only when medically needed
• Have access to protective services, if needed for safety reasons. Contact the Akron Children's Social Work department at 330-543-8830 on the Akron campus or 330-746-9074 on the Boardman campus.
• Privacy may be limited in situations where a person must be continuously observed to ensure his/her safety, such as when the patient is under suicide precautions.
• Receive ethical care and services.  You may ask to speak to a Children's Ethics Committee member to discuss ethical regarding your care by contacting the Chaplaincy department through the hospital operator 24 hours a day.

Have visitors

• Choose to have or not have visitors
• Know when and how many visitors you may have, and if not, be told why

Voice complaints, concerns and questions

• Have your complaints heard and answered in a fair amount of time
• If you have a complaint that is not corrected by your healthcare team, you can freely speak or write about your concerns to any or all of the following contacts:
• Patient Relations at 330-543-3534 or feedback@akronchildrens.org with concerns or questions about your care.
• The Compliance and Privacy Officer at 330-543-3065 if you have questions about your care or privacy.
• The Ohio Department of Health by phone at 1-800-342-0553 or by mail at 246 N. High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, to file a formal, written grievance about the quality of patient care, treatment or services received. Email: HCComplaints@odh.ohio.gov
• The Joint Commission at 800-994-6610, or www.jointcommission.org, with concerns or questions about the quality of patient care, treatment or services.
• The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services by TTY:1- 888-636-4889 • Fax: 614-466-1571 Phone: 1-877-275-6364, web: https://mha.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/mha/about-us/regional-psychiatric-hospitals/resources/rights-and-recovery-administrators or by mail at 30 East Broad St., 8th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215-3430, c/o Kathryn Remer, with concerns or questions about the quality of behavioral healthcare, treatment or services.

Behavioral Healthcare Planning

In addition to the rights identified above, you have the right to:

• Receive program rules in a manner that you can understand
• If you are disoriented or cannot understand your rights at the time of entry, be informed again when you are able to understand
• Access and request changes to your health information and receive information about any disclosure of your health information
• Be fully informed about our responsibility to end our relationship with you upon reasonable notice or seek orders for involuntary treatment or other legal options when care, treatment or services are refused
• Be informed about the hospital’s process for resolving disagreements about care issues
• Receive information about your treatment and outcomes of your care to help you share in current and future behavioral healthcare decisions
• An informed consent process that includes a discussion about any circumstance under which your health information must be disclosed or reported

Patient and Family Responsibilities

You have a responsibility to help us in the safe delivery of care, treatment and services. We value the information you share in the healthcare process.

You are responsible to and we ask that you:

Give us correct information

• Be honest about what you tell us
• Tell us about your health risks, such as allergies, eye or hearing problems
• Tell us about changes in your health
• Ask any questions you might have so that you understand the plan for your care and how you can help with the plan
• Tell us who may visit you during your hospital stay
• Give us copies of any legal documents if they affect your healthcare, including custody or guardianship documents

Give respect and consideration

You and your visitors are expected to:

• Respect the rights of others: patients, families and staff
• Honor the privacy of other patients
• Not take photographs or videotape of staff during direct patient care or procedures
• Follow hospital rules
• Keep a quiet environment
• Respect Akron Children’s property
• Wear or show only items that are fit for a child-friendly environment
• Follow our smoke-free environment policy

Keep safe

Ask us to:

• Check your patient ID before care, treatment or services
• Clean our hands before we care for you
• Tell you our name and our role in your care

Speak up

• If you have questions about your medications
• If you think something is not right

Follow the plan of care

• Follow directions given to you by your healthcare team
• Understand you are responsible if you say “no” to care or do not follow the plan for your care
• Keep your appointments

Pay any charges

• Pay your bill as soon as possible
• Give us insurance and payment information
• Follow all insurance rules