Patient Rights and Responsibilities

By your presence in the University Health Service, you have entered into a partnership with our health care team that has been assembled for the purpose of caring for you and other eligible patients in need. The patient-team relationship is clearly a mutual relationship with rights and responsibilities accruing to all participants.

• You have the right to optimal quality of care. You should expect that it be given to you in a manner that recognizes and respects your individuality and dignity as a person.

• You have the right to receive whatever treatment is clinically indicated in so far as it is within the scope of services provided by the University Health Service. If definitive care is not provided here, you may be transferred or referred to another health practitioner or facility, but only when you have been informed of the need and the alternatives and you have agreed to such a move, and only if the referral instition or practitioner has accepted you for admission or referral, when you have been informed of the need and the alternatives and you have agreed to such a move, and only if the referral instition or practitioner has accepted you for admission or referral.

• You have the right, prior to consenting to any treatment procedures, to a full and understandable explanation from your health care professional of the diagnosis of your problem, proposed treatment, and expected prognosis both with or without treatment.

• You have the right to seek a second opinion within the University Health Service, and, if you deem necessary, you have the right, at your own request and expense, to ask for another medical opinion from a source external to the University Health Service.

• You have the right to delay or refuse treatment. You also have the right to leave the University Health Service at any time prior to the completion of treatment. However, in both cases, you will be responsible for any untoward consequences and will be asked to sign a release stating that against professional advice, you are leaving the University Health Service and/or will not follow the treatment plan.

• You have the right to expect confidentiality and protection of your privacy in all examination and treatment areas; in all areas used for taking patient histories and other confidential data; and in the protection of your health care records.

• You have the right to know the name, position, and status of all individuals working at the University Health Service with whom you come in contact.

• You have the right to timely care, with priority given to those students who have urgent or emergency problems.

• You have the right to review with your physician, practitioner, or his/her designee all information contained in your medical rcord as a patient in the University Health Service and to have a personal copy of the information (for a minimal processing fee) within a reasonable time after request. However, if it is deemed medically inadvisable to provide this privilege to you, the information may be reviewed by a qualified person designated and authorized in writing by you.

• You have the responsibility to truthfully provide all information you can about any present and/or past conditions, illnesses and/or treatments, and to answer to the best of your ability all questions put to you by health professionals caring for you.

• You have the responsibility to acquaint yourself with University Health Service policy and procedures that affect you and to abide by them.

• You have the responsibility to return borrowed equipment within the specified time, to keep appointments or give reasonable notice of a change, and to pick up prescriptions requested from the pharmacy within a reasonable amount of time.

• You have the right and responsibility to provide comments and/or express concerns about the health care system at the University Health Service and/or its referral facilities and practitioners directly to the health care professional serving you, to the Student Health Advisory Council, or the administration.

Go to the menu of selections in the Winter 1996 issue of CQ.