Patient Rights and Responsibilites
A goal of The Renal Network is to make sure that all ESRD patients in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio are able to receive medical care and are treated with dignity and respect. The following Rights and Responsibilities have been revised by the Network's Patient's Leadership Committee and approved by the Board of Trustees.
Your Patient Rights are to:
- Know your rights and responsibilities.
- Know how to protect your rights and responsibilities.
- Receive quality, competent care and be treated with respect and dignity no matter what your age, color, culture, race, religion, or how your medical expenses are being paid.
- Be told about your kidney disease and other medical problems that may concern you.
- Be told about all the types of treatment that could be used to do the work your kidneys did before they stopped working; and for you to help decide which treatment might be best for you.
- Be given the help you need for any difficulty or problem that keeps you from fully understanding your medical care (be it physical like a hearing or vision loss, or social like speaking a language other than English), or not understanding technical or complicated terms.
- Expect that all healthcare workers responsible for your care will talk to each other about important medical information they need to know about your care like your medications, treatments, allergies, etc.
- Have your personal and medical records be open only those people who have to know about your care. You can decide who can see your records outside of the unit where you are treated, except if you change to another unit. If you change to another unit, your records must be given to the new unit according to government regulations and the law.
- Be told the reasons for all tests, and have test results explained to you when the results are known.
- Make sure you are told how, and that you understand why, things are done to you.
- Know your primary doctor.
- Know that you can meet privately with your doctor on a regular basis.
- Be able to get another doctor's opinion about your healthcare and know how much it will cost you.
- Be told about how much your care will cost, about ways to get help paying for these costs, and about how much should be paid by you and your family.
- Be able to choose or change doctors, type of treatment, and/or the place where you dialyze. However, this does not mean that the staff has to change the type of treatment to match your choice.
- Be able to see the social worker, dietician, rehabilitation caseworker, psychologist, or other healthcare worker in a timely manner as needed.
- Write down a concern or grievance and give it to the person at your facility who takes care of grievances. You can also send your grievance to The Renal Network. Filing a complaint will not have an effect on your care.
- Be told exactly what to do in case of emergency while you are being treated.
- Be given help to find a place to dialyze when you are planning to travel.
- Be told about new treatments that might help you, and be told the good points and bad points of those new treatments.
- Decide if you want to be part of a research study.
- (If you choose to be part of a research study), you must understand what the research study is about and the results of the study.
- Refuse to have someone watch you if they are not part of the staff giving you care.
- Refuse treatment (as allowed by law) and be told what will happen to your body if you do so.
Your Patient Responsibilities are to:
- Learn as much as you can about your disease, treatments, medicines, possible problems that could happen, and your rights and responsibilities as a kidney patient.
- Bring as much information as you can when you are giving your medical history to the healthcare workers caring for you.
- Tell your doctor or healthcare workers if you do not understand something.
- Follow the diet the doctor and dietician order for you.
- Get and take the medications the doctor orders for you. Also, tell the doctor if the medications are not working or cause problems for you.
- Make an appointment, as needed, to see your doctor at his/her office and not just at the unit.
- Arrive on time for your treatments, appointments, and meetings. Stay the entire time for your treatment; don't leave early. You need to call if you are going to be late or cannot make it in that day.
- Think about the needs of other patients, just as you would like them to think about your needs.
- Tell your healthcare workers if there are changes in how you feel.
- Follow the rules of the unit where you receive your treatments.
- Pay your bills when you get them, and provide the necessary papers to the facility to help them collect the money for the bills.