Client Rights and Responsibilities
- Access to Care—Individuals shall be accorded impartial access to treatment or accommodations as to their requests and needs for treatment or service that are within the clinic’s capacity, availability, stated mission and applicable law and regulation, regardless of race, creed, sex, national origin, religion, disability or source of payment of care.
- Respect and Dignity—Every individual, whether adult, adolescent, child or newborn, has the right to considerate, respectful care at all times and under all circumstances, with recognition of their personal dignity, and psychosocial, spiritual and cultural variables that influence their perceptions of illness.
- Privacy and Confidentiality—The client (or his/her parent or legal designated representative) has the right within the law, to personal and informational privacy, as manifested by the right to:
- Receive appropriate treatment in the least restrictive setting available.
- Refuse to talk with or see anyone not officially connected with the clinic, including visitors, or persons officially connected with the clinic but not directly involved in his/her care.
- Wear appropriate personal clothing and religious or other symbolic items, as long as they do not interfere with diagnostic procedures or treatment.
- Be interviewed and examined in surroundings designed to ensure reasonable audiovisual privacy this includes the right to have a person of one’s own sex present during certain parts of a physical examination, treatment or procedure performed by a health professional of the opposite sex and the right not to remain disrobed any longer than is required for accomplishing the medial purpose for which the client was asked to disrobe.
- Expect that any discussion or consultation involving the client’s case, whether adult, adolescent, child or newborn, will be conducted discreetly and that individuals not directly involved in their care will not be present without his permission.
- Have the right to review his medical records and have the information explained, except when restricted by law.
- Have the medical records read only by individuals directly involved in the treatment or the monitoring of its quality and by other individuals only on the client’s (or her parent or legal designated representative’s) written authorization. When the records are released to insurers’ that confidentiality is emphasized.
- Expect all communications and other records pertaining to care of the individual, including the source of payment for treatment, to be treated as confidential.
- Request a transfer to another treatment room if another client or visitor is unreasonably disturbing him/her.
- Be placed in protective privacy when considered necessary for personal safety.
- Personal Safety—The client has the right to expect reasonable safety insofar as the clinics practices and environment are concerned. A humane treatment environment that provides reasonable protection from harm and appropriate privacy for personal reasons.
- Identity—The client (or his/her parent or legal designated representative) has the right to know the identity and professional status of individuals providing services and to know which physician or other practitioner is primarily responsible for his care. This includes the right to know of the existence of any professional relationship among individuals who are treating him as well as the relationship of the clinic to any other health care or educational institution involved in his care. Participation by clients in clinical training programs or in the gathering of data for research purposes should be voluntary.