Patient Rights and Responsibilities
At Southside Regional Medical Center, we believe that patients who understand and participate in their treatment achieve better results. Therefore, we encourage you to be an active member of your healthcare team. As a patient, you have specific Rights and Responsibilities regarding your medical care. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with this information.
As a patient you have the right to:
- Know the risks, benefits and alternatives to proposed treatments or procedures.
- Information about the physicians or other clinicians who will be providing care or treatment.
- Receive information in easy to understand terms that will allow for an informed consent or refusal of the treatment or procedure.
- Privacy regarding medical care.
- Effective assessment and management of pain.
- Participate in the plan of care.
- Formulate advanced directives and have staff and practitioners comply with those directives.
- Reasonable responses to reasonable requests for service.
- Leave the medical center against the advice of the physician.
- Examine and receive an explanation of the bill for services regardless of the source of payment.
- Select providers of goods and services after discharge.
- Receive a Notice of Privacy Practices.
- Request privacy protection.
- Access protected health information.
- Amend protected health information.
- Request an accounting of disclosures of protected health information.
- Consent to receive the visitors who you designate, including but not limited to a spouse, a domestic partner (including a same sex domestic partner), another family member, or a friend. You may withdraw your consent to receive any visitor at any time. To the extent this hospital places limitations or restrictions on visitation, you have the right to set any preference of order or priority for your visitors to satisfy those limitations or restrictions. This hospital does not and will not restrict, limit, or otherwise deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. This hospital will ensure that the visitors chosen by you will be able to enjoy full and equal visitation privileges, consistent with your preferences.
You have the responsibility to:
- Provide accurate and complete information concerning your present medical condition, past illnesses or hospitalizations and any other matters concerning your health.
- Tell your caregivers if you do not completely understand your plan of care.
- Follow the caregivers’ instructions.
- Follow all medical center policies and procedures while being considerate of the rights of other patients, medical center employees and medical center property.
If you have a complaint, please share it with us. Ask to speak with the director or nurse manager of your unit or facility. You may also contact our Director of Patient Relations, Administration, at 804-765-5066. Other resources available to you or your representative include the Virginia Dept. of Health Professions (800-533-1560), The Office of Licensure and Certification (800-955-1819), and The Joint Commission (800-994-6610).