Yes, You Do! The Patient Bill of Rights will help you and your healthcare advocate navigate the healthcare landscape. So, with that said, let’s start out by asking a question.
Question: Which of the following is not included in The Patient Care Partnership formerly known as the Patient Bill of Rights (PBR)?
1) The care you need will be provided, when you need it, with skill, compassion and respect.
2) Your medical condition and information about medically appropriate treatment choices will be discussed with you.
3) Your provider is required to have a big screen, color TV in your room.
4) Your caregivers will need complete and correct information about your health in order to make decisions about your care.
5) Signing a health care power of attorney allows a person you designate to make decisions for you when you are unable to.
Do you know the origin of the PBR? Many healthcare consumers don’t know about the (PBR) and even less know what it’s for or how to use it. Originally, the first PBR was adopted by the American Hospital Association (AHA) in 1973 and was intended to address the “paternalistic” culture that existed in US hospitals and standardize the treatment of patients in all hospitals. Over the years the continued development has had numerous development sources. The concept received a significant boost in 1997 when President Clinton appointed an advisory commission to develop a healthcare consumer PBR to be enforced at the Federal, State and Local levels. By 1999, the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program implemented and adopted the PBR (The FEHB covers all full-time active and retired employees of the Federal government). In 2003, the AHA replaced the original Patient Bill of Rights with the Patient Care Partnership. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act made additional patient rights part of the federal law landscape, including participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs and impacted health insurance plans, too. BTW, the correct answer is #3.
In our experience, only a few people are aware of the Patient Care Partnership and even a smaller number of patients have ever utilized it during a hospital stay or physician visit. Despite being posted in all US based hospitals, there are numerous reasons to explain this. Root causes (excuses) are the result of a patient’s fear/uncertainty/anxiety/lack of confidence/unfamiliarity and general compliant attitude toward healthcare providers. Frankly, no one wants to upset the people responsible for saving their lives.
Through our informal surveys, we find the most common approach people take in dealing with unsatisfactory experiences in the healthcare sector is to simply change the relationship. Patients simply change physicians, change hospitals or make some other type of change.
While this approach solves the immediate patient situation. It creates a huge void in the healthcare system’s ability to continually improve performance based on “customer feedback.” This mode of leaving unsolved issues for someone else to deal with is a root cause of why operational healthcare issues are so difficult to identify and solve. (This is a topic for future discussion.)
A patient desiring to use an organization’s PBR to address an issue finding the internal feedback process is the first step. This might be the organization’s patient advocate, a brochure, an internal patient satisfaction questionnaire, a website, an internal formal grievance process or a Hot-Line number. In addition, external resources outside the organization include, US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, Centers for Medicare Medicaid, a State’s Department of Health Services, the patient’s health plan’s grievance process, social media reviews (in accordance with website policies) or an attorney are other options.
We urge both patients, their families and advocates familiarize themselves at a minimum with the AHA’s Patient Care Partnership in addition to the specific organization’s PBR. This will be a strong first step towards future resolution of patient/provider challenges.
The Patient Care Partnership does not include the following:
1)Preparing the patient and family for the patient’s discharge from the hospital.
2)If the patient is uninsured the hospital will try to help the patient and family help make financial arrangements.
3)When admitted to the hospital you’ll be asked to sign a general consent for treatment. In addition, you may be asked to confirm in writing additional treatments such as surgery.
4)Your medical information and treatments you receive from medical providers may be accessed by others and may be shared without your consent.
Correct answer: 4.
Patient Care Partnership focuses on a hospital stay. Remember, Your Physician and Insurance Company have responsibility for your care.
To access AHAs’ The Patient Care Partnership, click on the link below:
https://www.aha.org/other-resources/patient-care-partnership
The Patient Care Partnership does not address filing a medical complaint and If you believe a healthcare provider failed to provide a patient with appropriate care with Hospitals, Doctors and Insurance Companies they all have procedures for filing a medical complaint.
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