Our focus is always on you. We are committed to providing excellent care in the most personal, sympathetic, confidential and dignified manner possible. Along with your health, you and your family’s values are among our top concerns.
Our job is to use our skills and resources to help prevent illness, restore and maintain health, and provide support, pain management and comfort when death is inevitable.
Your rights and responsibilities as a patient are an important part of health care. That’s why we endorse the American Hospital Association's “Patient’s Bill of Rights,” which supports the rights and responsibilities of patients.
Aurora Health Care wants you to know that you have rights as a patient, including the right to make your own decisions about your health care. Under Wisconsin State law, every patient (or the representative you’ve named to make choices for you) will get a copy of the document that outlines patient rights and responsibilities when they register. If you have to make very difficult decisions, our Ethics Committee can help you work through those choices. You’ll always have the opportunity to fully participate in planning your care and treatment.
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You’ll get access to available, medically appropriate treatments or accommodations regardless of your race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, newborn status, handicap or source of payment. If you’re disabled, you have the right to ask for modifications and accommodations to our policies, procedures and practices, so that you can have the same goods, services, facilities, privileges, accommodations and advantages as a non-disabled patient, unless provision of such modifications would:
You have the right to considerate, respectful care at all times and under all circumstances, with recognition of your individual dignity and personal needs. That includes the need for privacy in treatment. You won’t be restrained if not medically necessary, or for your own or others’ safety. You have the right to not be abused or harassed.
You have the right to privacy, which means you can:
You have the right to only allow visitors you agree to. Those visitors can include a spouse, domestic partner (including a same-sex domestic partner), another family member and/or friend. You can choose to restrict visitors at any time. Your visitors will not be restricted on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. The only time visitors might be limited would be for a specific medical reason, or for safety reasons. If that happens, we’ll discuss it with you and your family members.
You have the right to know the name, job, and qualifications of anyone who’s treating or caring for you, and to know which doctor or other health care provider is in charge of your care.
You (or any person you’ve legally authorized) have the right to ask for and get complete and current information about your diagnosis (depending on how much is known), the recommended treatment, and the expectation of your recovery. If you don’t understand the information, you have the right to have it communicated to you so that you do understand it. When it is not medically advisable to give you such information, the information should be offered to someone you’ve legally authorized. You also have the right to refuse to hear this information.
You (or any person you’ve legally authorized) have a right to access your medical records. You have a right to access, request amendment to, and receive an accounting of disclosures regarding your own health information as permitted under applicable law.
You (or any person you’ve legally authorized) have a right to be informed about the outcomes of care, treatment and services, including outcomes that were unexpected.
You have the right to communicate with people outside the hospital. If you don’t speak the common language of the community, you have the right to an interpreter. You can choose who is permitted to visit you during your hospital stay. You have the right to have a family member or other representative you choose, as well as your regular doctor, notified right away that you’ve been admitted to the hospital.
You have the right to expect to be safe in the hospital.
Except in emergencies, we will get consent from you or your legally authorized representative before you’re treated. You can refuse treatment, to the extent permitted by law, and if you refuse you’ll be told what the medical consequences might be. Wherever possible, answers to your questions and requests will be based on a clear explanation of your condition and of all suggested technical procedures, including the risk of death or serious side effects, problems related to recovery and probability of success. If there are other alternatives to care or treatment, you have the right to be told what they are.
You have the right to know who is responsible for authorizing and performing the procedures or treatments.
You have a right to have informed consent filmed or photographed, a right to request that recording to be stopped, and a right to take back your consent.
You may be asked to participate in a research study. Taking part in such studies is your choice. If you decide not to participate, this will not affect the quality of the care you receive. You or your legally authorized representative will give informed consent for your participation in any form of research before it happens.
You have the right to be assessed for pain and for your pain to be adequately managed.
You have the right, at your request and expense, to ask for a consultation with a specialist. You have the right to access protective services. Assistance is provided and referrals are made according to state law. Resource information is provided upon request.
You may refuse treatment to the extent permitted by law. If you or your legally authorized representative decide to refuse treatment that stops your health care providers from giving you care that meets their ethical and professional standards, the relationship between you and your health care providers may have to be terminated, after reasonable notice.
You have the right to create an advance directive and appoint someone you trust to make health care decisions on your behalf, to the extent permitted by law. You will receive information about advance directives and you’ll have the chance to create an advance directive. That directive will become part of your permanent medical record, and the terms of your advance directive will be followed by staff, to the extent allowed by law. You will receive care even though you may not have an advance directive.
For services rendered in an outpatient hospital department, upon request, the hospital helps patients formulate a medical advance directive or refers them for assistance.
Except in the event of an emergency, you will not be transferred to another facility without being given a full explanation for the transfer, without provisions being made for continuing care and without acceptance by the facility you’re being transferred to.
You have a right to examine your hospital bill and get an explanation of the bill, regardless of your source of payment, and you will get, upon request, information relating to financial assistance available through the hospital. You have the right to be notified in advance if you’re not eligible for reimbursement by any third-party payer. You also have the right to be given, upon request, full information and necessary counseling about the availability of known financial resources for your care; to know, upon request and before you’re treated, whether the health care provider or health care facility accepts Medicare; and to receive, upon request and before you’re treated, a reasonable estimate of what your care will cost.
We value your feedback. If you have a complaint, please contact any staff member. You have a right to be told about our complaint policy and procedure. Please contact a manager at the site where you were cared for if you want additional information on our complaint policy and procedure, including how to submit a complaint, how complaints are reviewed, the time frame for review, when to expect a written response, and what the result of complaints may be. You also may contact a manager or administrator if you have a complaint that has not been addressed.
Hospitals
Surgery Centers
You also have the right to file a complaint by contacting:
Wisconsin Division of Quality Assurance
P.O. Box 2969
Madison, WI 53701-2969
Phone: 608-266-8481 or 800-642-6552
Fax: 608-267-0352
Office of Quality Monitoring
The Joint Commission
One Renaissance Boulevard
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Phone: 800-994-6610
Fax: 630-792-5636
DNV-GL Healthcare
400 Techne Center Drive
Suite 100
Milford, OH 45150
Phone: 866-496-9647
Fax: 513-947-1250
References:
Wisconsin Administrative Code HFS 124.05
Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals
Hospital Interpretive Guidelines – Patient Rights
DNV-GL Healthcare