Patients' Rights and Responsibilities in Healthcare

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What are patient’s rights and responsibilities? In healthcare when a person seeks out services pertaining to their health, a person should expect to be treated in such a way that they are res-pected. This includes the information that is obtained while being examined by healthcare pro-fessionals. It is very important to know what rights you have as a patient and the services you will receive when seeking the professional opinions of healthcare professionals. If you are una-ware of your rights as a patient, there are a lot of things you must know. All of the rights and re-sponsibilities are unalienable, none of the following can be taken away due to age, color, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, culture, language, physical and/or mental disability, socioeco-nomic status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, and/or the ability to pay. In all areas of the healthcare field, these rights must be followed by those who are providing a service to the public. As a new patient with any provider; the provider is obligated to give a person a copy of the Patient’s Rights and Responsibilities and have the person sign the form stating they have received a copy for their records.

There is a difference between a person’s rights and their responsibilities as a patient. A patient’s right is protected by the law. In the healthcare system, all the rights listed on the form given by providers is protected and if violated can be punishable by fines if found guilty in a court of law. All providers must abide by the patient’s rights. A responsibility would be the person’s obligation or duty that is accepted or put into action. This means a person accepts their responsibilities in exchange for...

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...onship with the healthcare provider. If a person understands what their rights and responsibilities mean and that they have not just signed a paper required by law; they can better understand what is needed to get the best out of the healthcare system. The person will be able to understand that they do have options and they can make their own choices. Also, one provider is not the final word when they are receiving services.
There will always be a need for healthcare as people are always sick in some way or they are out of balance with their health in some way. There are so many specialty areas in the healthcare field that it allows for a variety of specialists to be apart of a patient’s decision making process. It does pay to be knowledgable. Take the time to read each one of the patient’s rights and under-stand what it means to have a choice.

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