Patient Rights


	Patient Rights
	Departments & Services > Patient and Family Advocacy > Patient Rights

Bill of Rights

We at Fletcher Allen Health Care are committed to provide you competent and respectful care, to honor your legal rights, and to strive to meet reasonable expectations. This requires honest communication among you, your family and your health care team. Fletcher Allen Health Care is a teaching institution with a mission of educating health care professionals. Students and residents from multiple disciplines will be an integral part of your health care team.

Fletcher Allen Health Care invites feedback from our patients and families, including compliments, suggestions for improvement, concerns and grievances about our care and/or services. We encourage direct feedback to any staff at the time the concern arises. In addition, a specific review process is offered through our Office of Patient and Family Advocacy. This process includes appropriate investigation and resolution at point of service and/or referral to our Grievance Committee for review and written response. For more information, contact the Office of Patient and Family Advocacy at 847-3500.

Listed below is what you can expect from us and what we expect from you.

You have a right:

To receive information about patient rights when your receive care from us.
To receive necessary care regardless of your sex, age, race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics including source of payment of your care.
To get the information you need to understand your medical condition and prognosis.
To be involved in plans and decisions about your medical treatment.
To have an attending physician who is responsible for coordinating your care.
To expect reasonable continuity of care and be informed of continuing health care requirements following your discharge.
To receive appropriate assessment and management of your pain as part of your overall treatment plan.
To be free from restraints and/or seclusion in any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
To decide whether to accept any and all available treatments. If you should become unable to make such decisions, your doctor/healthcare professional will ask for consent from your

Legal health care agent, including an individual with a signed Vermont Reciprocal Beneficiary Relationship document (Reciprocal Beneficiary information can be obtained from Patient and Family Advocacy 847-3500).

Family or close associates.

To prepare Advance Directives, such as Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. (Please call The Department of Case Management / Social Work at 847-3553 for this service).
To request and participate in an ethics consultation regarding your care. Ethics consultation may be appropriate when there is a difference of opinion about what is the best treatment for you. (Please call 847-0000 and ask the operator to page the Clinical Ethics Consultation Service.)
To expect that your personal information will be treated confidentially. The members of your health care team will share among themselves the information that is necessary to guide their care of you. As part of our continuing effort to assure the quality of care, Fletcher Allen employees from the Institute for Quality and Operational Effectiveness may review your medical record. Others may have access only if you consent or if required by law.
To be informed, or have your family informed, about the outcomes of care, including unanticipated outcomes.
To read your medical record and request amendments. Please contact your attending physician or Health Information Management (847-2846) to process such requests.
To know the maximum patient census and the full-time equivalent numbers of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and licensed nursing assistants who provide direct care for each shift on the unit where the patient is receiving care. (For information, please call 847-7999).
To receive Patient Protective Services in situations of physical, sexual or psychological abuse, or when there is suspicion of such abuse. Such services may be initiated by your professional caregivers, or you may initiate them yourself by calling The Department of Case Management / Social Work at 847-3553.
To participate in or not to participate in research projects.
To receive interpreter service if you need them. (Please call The Department of Case Management / Social Work at 847-3553 for this service.)
To leave the hospital against your physician’s advice unless you lack decision-making capability to make an informed decision about discharge.
To, whenever possible, stay with your children 24 hours a day (parents or guardians). Whenever possible, agents, guardians, reciprocal beneficiaries or immediate family members have the right to stay with terminally-ill patients 24 hours a day.
To be informed in writing of the availability of hospice services and the eligibility criteria for those services.
To know what hospital rules and regulations apply to your responsibilities as a patient (see below).

You can expect that we will:

Respect your personal values and beliefs.
Respect and honor your advance directive.
Respond to any reasonable request courteously and promptly.
Respect your privacy as much as possible.
Give you our names, titles, and roles.
Provide counseling if you or your family have any concerns about your care (The Office of Patient and Family Advocacy can be reached at 847-3500.)

You have a responsibility:

To provide full information about your illness and past health, so that we can provide the right care.
To provide us with complete personal information including your name and address, current health insurance data and/or the identification of the person responsible for your bill.
To be aware of what your health care insurance does and does not cover. Services not covered can be provided but may be at your expense.
To cooperate with us in our efforts to obtain payment for services provided to you and/or with our efforts to provide you with the benefits of our special financial assistance programs.
To keep scheduled appointments or call as soon as possible to cancel.
To let us know if you do not understand or cannot follow the proposed plan for your care.
To recognize the effect of you life-style on your personal health.

You have additional rights:

To receive an itemized bill and an explanation of all charges. (Please call 847-8000 for this service.)
To receive information about available financial assistance. (Please call 847-8000 for this service.)
To bring concerns to:

The Office of Patient and Family Advocacy at Fletcher Allen Health Care: 802-847-3500. Address: Fletcher Allen Health Care, 111 Colchester Avenue, Burlington, VT 05401. (concerns about the quality or safety of care.)
Division of Health Care Administration, Department of Banking, Insurance, and Securities & Health Care Administration: 1-800-631-7788 (Concerns about health care services you have received).
The Office of Health Care Ombudsman: 1-800-917-7787 (Concerns about health insurance).
Vermont Department of Health and Board of Health: 1-800-745-7371 (Concerns about health care services you have received).
Vermont Secretary of State, Office of Professional Regulation: (802) 828-2386 (Concerns about the quality of care provided by licensed professionals).
Vermont Board of Medical Practice: 800-745-7371 (Concerns about physicians).
Department of Aging and Independent Living, Division of Licensing Protection: 1-800-564-1612. (to enter a complaint against a facility or agency that provides health care services or to report abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult).
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: 1-800-Medicare (1-800-633-4227) (Concerns about the quality of care provided to Medicare consumers)
Joint Commission on Accreditation for Health Care: 1-800-994-6610 (concerns about the quality or safety of care).

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