Patient Rights & Responsibilities

Welcome to our orthopedic practice. This document outlines your rights and responsibilities as a patient, which is an essential part of your registration and healthcare plan. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our clinic leadership.

We are dedicated to providing you with the highest quality orthopedic care and ensure that our services are delivered with respect and fairness. In accordance with Federal civil rights laws, we guarantee that you will receive care without discrimination based on: Age, gender, disability, race, color, ancestry, citizenship, religion, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, health condition, marital status, veteran status, payment source or ability, any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law.

Your rights are a fundamental part of our commitment to you

Your Rights to Considerate and Respectful Care

At our orthopedic practice, we are committed to ensuring you receive:

• Considerate and Respectful Care: We provide care that is fair, high-quality, safe, and professional
• Non-Discriminatory Treatment: Your care is delivered without regard to color, race, religion, creed, or any other protected status
• Individualized Attention: We recognize and respect your individuality in all aspects of your treatment
• Privacy: Your treatment is conducted with the utmost respect for your privacy
• Safe Environment: We ensure a safe environment for your care
• Gender-Specific Requests: Except in emergencies, you can request a person of the same sex to be present during any part of your exam, treatment, or procedures performed by someone of the opposite sex
• Minimized Exposure: You will not be undressed any longer than necessary for exams, tests, procedures, or other reasons
• Private Consultations: Your consultations, exams, and care are conducted privately and discreetly. Please refer to our Notice of Privacy Practices (NOPP) for detailed information on the privacy and security of your health information and medical records
• Personal and Religious Attire: You are allowed to wear appropriate personal clothing and religious or symbolic items, as long as they do not interfere with your treatment or diagnostic procedures
  

   

  Understanding Your Health Status and Care

  At our orthopedic practice, you have the right to:

  • Be Informed: Receive information about your health status in clear, understandable terms and language for you, your family, and caregivers
  • Participate in Your Care: Actively take part in your care and treatment plan
  • Make Decisions: Be involved in decisions about your care, unless it is deemed harmful to you by your doctors or caregivers
  • Know Your Care Team: Be informed of the names, roles, and qualifications of the healthcare professionals involved in your care
  • Understand Follow-Up Care: Know the details of your follow-up care plan
  • Be Aware of Risks and Benefits: Understand the risks, benefits, and side effects of all medications and treatment procedures for your diagnosis
  • Explore Treatment Options: Learn about innovative or experimental medications and treatment procedures offered, as well as alternative treatment options
  • Give Informed Consent: Understand your procedures and provide informed consent before they begin
  • Know Possible Outcomes: Be aware of the potential outcomes of your care and treatment
  • Pain Management: Understand the assessment and management of your pain
  • Referral to Other Institutions: When referred to other healthcare institutions, know who they are, what they will do, and have the right to refuse their care
  • Seek Follow-Up Assistance: Get help from doctors and others for follow-up care, if available
  • Change Providers: Change providers or seek a second opinion, including specialists, at your request and expense
   

Access to Services

• Receive free services of a translator, interpreter, or other necessary services or devices to help you communicate with the Practice in a timely manner (i.e. qualified interpreters, written information in other format or languages, etc.)
• Bring a service animal except where prohibited pursuant to Practice policy
• Have access to our facility buildings and grounds in compliance with The Americans with Disabilities Act, a law that stops discrimination against people with disabilities.  The ADA policy is available upon request
• Prompt and reasonable response to questions and requests for service
• If you need any of the above services, contact the Practice management team at (770) 769-1724

Ethical Decision

Talk to and join in with your doctor about:

• Conflict resolutions
• Withholding resuscitative services
• Foregoing or withdrawing life sustaining care
• Investigational study or clinical trials

Know that if your health care expert decides your refusal to accept treatment prevents you from getting the right care (as stated by its ethical and professional standards), it can end the relationship.

Payment and Administrative

• Review your health care bill regardless of your ability to pay it or the payment source
• Receive information about available financial resources
• If uninsured, to receive, before the provision of a planned nonemergency medical service, a reasonable estimate of charges for such service and information regarding any discount or charity policies for which the uninsured person may be eligible.
• Know if the Practice, doctors and other team members accept Medicare, the government’s health insurance for those aged 65+ or disabled
• Know and understand the Medicare charges for your services and treatment provided
• Receive if you ask, with explanation, a reasonable estimate of your health care charges before treatment
• To be free from any requirement to purchase drugs, or rent or purchase medical supplies or equipment from any particular source (specifically in accordance with the provisions of the CA Section 1320 of the Health and Safety Code) and also to receive patient choice in these type of decisions

Protective Service

• Receive available protective and advocacy services
• Receive, as offered by state law:
  • Care and treatment for mental illness or development disability
  • All legal and civil rights as a citizen
• Understand and expect emergency procedures without unneeded delay within Practice scope
• Get needed information to approve a treatment or procedure
• Be given the Practice’s policies and procedures for:
  • Initiation, review, resolution of patient complaints, including the address and phone number to file complaints
• Discuss complaints, issues, or problems regarding discrimination in access to services with your doctor and/or the Practice management team/ Equity Compliance Coordinator at (770) 769-1724. You can file a grievance in person or by mail, fax, or email. If you need help filing a grievance, the Equity Compliance Coordinator is available to help you.
• File a complaint with the Ethics Line (1-800-994-6610), the Department of Health and Human Services^*, Office of Civil Rights^* or others with your concerns about patient abuse, neglect, misuse of your property at the Practice, other unresolved complaints, patient safety, and quality concerns
• Have a fair review of alleged patient right violations

^*Contact information for HHS or OCR: US. Department U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, SW Room 509F, HHH Building Washington, D.C. 20201 1-800-368-1019, 800-537-7697 (TDD) Complaint forms are available at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/office/file/index.html or https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/portal/lobby.jsf