At UCI Health, patients have the right to be free of discrimination when receiving care and to be treated respectfully by providers and staff. UCI Health complies with applicable civil rights policies, state, and federal laws. For more information, please go to www.OEOD.uci.edu.
Patients have the right...
1. To be treated kindly and with respect for your personal values, beliefs, and preferences to be honored.
2. To have a family member, or a chosen representative, and your doctor told when you are admitted to the hospital.
3. To request an interpreter if needed, at no cost to you. If you need these services, contact Language Services at (714) 456-6731.
4. To get free help and tools to communicate if you have a disability.
5. To know the names of the licensed health care providers and other health care workers who are taking care of you.
6. To know about your health condition, diagnosis, be involved in making decisions about your medical care, and to understand the chances of getting better. This includes being part of any important talks about your treatment, solving disagreements, deciding whether to use emergency treatments, stopping treatments that keep you alive, or any unexpected results. You can see your medical records, and you will get a “Notice of Privacy Practices” that explains your rights to access your records.
7. To make decisions about your medical care and get all the information you need about any suggested treatment. Unless it's an emergency, this information should include a description of the treatment, the important risks, other treatment options and the risks of those choices, or risks of not having treatment, as well as the name of the person who will do the treatment.
8. To ask for or say no to certain treatments or leave the hospital even if the doctors think you should stay if the law allows it. But you cannot ask for treatments that are not needed or not right for your condition.
9. To say no if the hospital or doctor wants you to be part of a research study or experiment.
10. To get a fair answer to any reasonable requests you make.
11. To have your pain checked and treated properly. You can learn about pain, the ways to relieve it, and help decide how to manage your pain. You can choose to use or not use any methods to relieve pain, including strong pain medicine if you have severe, ongoing pain. Your doctor might say no to giving you this medicine, but if they do, they must tell you about doctors who are experts in treating pain.
12. To create advance directives, which are instructions about your health care if you cannot make decisions later. This means you can choose someone to make decisions for you if you are not able to say what you want. Hospital staff and doctors must follow these orders. All your rights apply to the person you pick to make medical decisions for you.
13. To privacy. Conversations, exams, and treatments should be kept private. You can ask why someone is in there. Visitors must leave before exams or treatment talks if you do not want them there. Curtains will be used in shared rooms.
14. To keep your medical records and discussions about your care private. You will get a "Notice of Privacy Practices" explaining your privacy rights and how your health information can be used and shared.
15. To be cared for in a safe place where no one hurts you mentally, physically, sexually, or verbally. No one should abuse, neglect, exploit, or harass you. To report abuse while at UCI Health, call OEOD at (949) 824-5594 or call UCI Police at (714) 456-5493. You can also report to a government agency to get help if someone is abusing or neglecting you.
16. To be free from restraints or isolation unless it is necessary for your safety or the safety of others.
17. To know in advance when and where your appointments are and who will be treating you.
18. To participate in the plan and be told what you need to do for your health after you leave the hospital. A friend or family member can also get this information if you request it.
19. To know the hospital rules that apply to you while you are a patient.
20. To choose a support person and visitors, even if they are not related to you, unless:
• No visitors are allowed.
• UCI Health decides that a specific visitor might be dangerous or disruptive.
• You do not want a particular person to visit and told a member of the UCI staff.
If you cannot decide who can visit you, UCI Health will follow the rules to make the decision. At the very least, they'll let someone who lives with you and your chosen support person visit. The hospital can have fair rules about visiting hours and how many people can visit you. They must let you know your rights and any limits depending on how you’re feeling. For safety, they might limit visiting hours or the number of visitors. But the hospital cannot stop visits because of someone’s race, color, religion, or other personal things like that.
21. To see and understand the hospital bill, no matter who pays for your care.
22. To receive information about financial assistance and payment plans that might be available to help cover their hospital bills.
23. To make a complaint, grievance or share a concern with UCI Health. They will look into it and get back to you in writing within 30 days. Their response will tell you who to contact at UCI Health, what they did to investigate your complaint, what they found out, and when they finished looking into it.
If your complaint is about the quality of care you received or if you think you were discharged too early, you can also contact Livanta.
You can reach Livanta online at livantaqio.cms.gov or by phone at 1-877-588-1123 or (TDD) 1-855-887-6668.
You may contact the following agencies to express any concerns, complaints, or grievances you may have:
UCI HEALTH
Patient Relations
UCI Health
P.O. Box 14091
Orange, CA 92868-4091
714-456-7004 option 5
EMAIL: healthexperience@hs.uci.edu
MEDICAL BOARD
Medical Board of California
Central Complaint Unit
2005 Evergreen St., Ste. 1200
Sacramento, CA 95815-5401
ACCREDITING BOARD
The Joint Commission
Office of Quality and Patient Safety
One Renaissance Blvd.
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
CALIFORNIA CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT
California Civil Rights Department
2218 Kausen Dr., Ste. 100
Elk Grove, CA 95751-800-884-1684; (TDD) 1-800-700-2320
www.dfeh.ca.gov
STATE AGENCY
California Department of Public Health
681 S. Parker Avenue, Ste. 200
Orange, CA 92868
1-800-228-5234
HHS OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS
US Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Civil Rights
200 Independence Ave. SW, Room 509F
HHH Building
Washington DC, 20201
1-800-368-1019; (TDD) 1-800-537-769
MEDICARE
Medicare Help and Support: 1-800-MEDICARE
File a Complaint: 1-877-588-1123
www.livantaqio.cms.gov
1-800-633-2322
EMAIL: complaint@mbc.ca.gov
Patients are responsible…
1. To be honest to tell doctors and nurses the truth about your health, how you are feeling, and medicines you are taking.
2. To be polite to UCI Health staff, other patients, and follow hospital rules. Share concerns calmly and do not threaten or abuse anyone.
3. To follow the hospital's rules about visitors, noise, and safety. Do not bring medicines from home, drugs (including medical marijuana), cigarettes, vapes, alcohol, marijuana, or weapons to your room.
4. To ask questions, share concerns, and help decide your treatment plan.
5. To understand your treatment: Say yes to treatments only when you understand what is involved and you feel comfortable with them. It is important that you agree fully before any treatment is done.
6. To follow your provider's advice, take your medicines as directed, and keep your appointments. If you feel different or something does not seem right tell someone on your care team right away.
7. To keep other patients' information private and not share their personal details. Also, do not take pictures, videos, or recordings of staff, providers, or other patients. It is important to make sure everyone feels safe and respected.
8. To make sure to pay for your medical services, like copays or any part of the bill that your insurance does not cover. Share your insurance details with us so we can take care of your billing correctly and make sure you get the right care.
9. To get ready to leave UCI Health by making sure you have all your medicines, belongings, and know when your follow-up appointments are. This helps you to keep getting better even after you go home.
10. For your personal items. The hospital is not responsible for your belongings. It is best not to bring valuables to the hospital. If you do bring them, you should keep them in the hospital safe or ask a friend or relative to take them home. This way, your things stay safe while you focus on getting better.
These responsibilities help make sure everyone stays safe and gets the best care possible.
All mental health patients have the right to:
1. Wear their own clothes, keep and use their own personal possessions, including toilet articles, and keep and be allowed to spend a reasonable sum of their own money for canteen expenses
and small purchases.
2. Access to individual storage space for their private use.
3. See visitors each day.
4. Reasonable access to telephones, both to make and receive confidential calls.
5. Ready access to letter-writing materials, including stamps, and to mail and receive unopened correspondence.
6. Refuse shock treatment.
7. Refuse psychosurgery as defined in Section 5325, Welfare and Institutions Code.
8. Be informed of the provisions of law regarding complaints and of procedures for registering complaints confidentially, including but not limited to, the address and telephone number of the
complaint-receiving unit of the department.
9. All other right as provided by law or regulation.
10. The physician who has overall responsibility for the service or a designee, may for good cause deny a person any of the rights specified above, except those rights specified in subsection (7) and (9) above, and the rights under subsection (6) may be denied only under the conditions specified in Section 5326.7 of the Welfare and Institutions Code. The denial, and the reasons therefore, shall be entered in the patient’s medical record.
All infants have the right to:
1. Be treated as human beings with feelings and emotions.
2. Receive considerate and respectful care.
3. Receive affection, love and understanding.
4. Receive the best medical care available regardless of race, color, creed or financial ability to pay.
5. Allow family the right to receive from the physician information necessary to give informed consent.
6. Confidentiality in all communications and records relating to their care.
7. Information concerning other healthcare institutions.
8. Be as comfortable and free from pain as possible.
9. Receive nutritional support regardless of the expected outcome of their disease.
10. Die with dignity and honor.
Pediatric patients have the right to:
1. Be called by their name.
2. Receive a smile and loving care.
3. Be given careful evaluation and courteous, prompt treatment.
4. Know the names of their doctors, nurses and anyone who provides care.
5. Have basic needs met—to be clean, dry, comfortable and without restraints whenever possible.
6. Have as normal a schedule as possible—uninterrupted sleep, quiet times, playroom, school, the comfort of parents and family members, and schedules designed for their convenience as much as possible.
7. Have a schedule for tests and procedures that doesn’t keep them hungry or thirsty for any longer than necessary.
8. Make choices whenever possible when they do not interfere with the quality of care.
9. Cry and make noise, or object to anything that hurts.
10. Have their parents with them any time they are able to stay, as long as it doesn’t compromise care.
11. Have an interpreter for them and their family whenever possible.
12. Involve family in healthcare decisions and also to:
a. Be told what’s happening to them, and to have their questions answered honestly in words they can understand.
b. Have confidentiality about their illness.
c. Not have people talk about them over their beds, in their rooms, outside their doors or in the halls unless they know what’s happening.
d. Be discharged from the hospital as soon as possible without compromising their health.
