Patient Responsibilities

Our patients have the responsibility to:

1. Provide information that facilitates your care, treatment, and services.
2. Ask questions or acknowledge when you do not understand your plan of care or care decisions.
3. Report any safety concerns about your care.
4. Follow instructions, policies, rules, and regulations in place to support quality care all patients and a safe environment for all individuals in the hospital.
5. Follow the recommended treatment plan and be responsible for actions and outcomes from refusing services/instructions.
6. Be considerate of the rights of other patients and medical facility personnel.
7. Be respectful of the property of other persons and the medical facility.
8. Support mutual consideration and respect by maintaining civil language and conduct in interactions with staff and health care providers.
9. Interact with staff, physicians, and visitors in a civil manner, consistent with the hospital’s obligation to maintain a respectful and considerate relationship with all patients.
10. It is the responsibility of the patient who wishes to make an advance decision regarding his/her medical or surgical treatment, including the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures if he/she should become unconscious, incompetent, or otherwise incapable of personally making a decision, to clearly indicate his/her desires to Covenant Health and his/her attending physician.
11. Ask the doctor or nurse what to expect regarding pain and pain management by:
    1. Working with a doctor or nurse to develop a pain management plan,
    2. Discussing pain relief options,
    3. Asking for pain relief when pain first begins,
    4. Assisting a doctor or nurse in assessing and reassessing your pain,
    5. Reporting a doctor or nurse if the pain is not relieved, and
    6. Telling the doctor or nurse about any worries about taking pain medication.
12. Meet financial commitments.