Hospice Patient Rights

As a St.Vincent Hospice patient, you have the RIGHT:

1. To receive care from a team of professionals who will provide high quality, comprehensive hospice services as needed and as appropriate for you and your family.
2. To receive care that respects your cultural, spiritual, and social values, regardless of race, color, creed, nationality, age, gender, disability, or source of payment.
3. To receive respectful, considerate, compassionate care that promotes your dignity, privacy, safety, and comfort, and that manages your pain and symptoms as well as possible.
4. To receive physical and spiritual support, and to be as free from pain and in as much control of your environment as possible.
5. To be free from verbal, physical, and psychological abuse and to be treated with dignity.
6. To understand the availability of and access to hospice services and the hospice team 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
7. To be informed of your health status in order to participate in planning your care. The hospice team will help you and your family identify which services and treatments will help you attain goals.
8. To be informed of the potential benefits and risks of all medical treatments and/or services suggested, and to accept or refuse those treatments and/or services as appropriate to your personal wishes.
9. To formulate advance directives, and to expect that your advance directives will be followed when applicable. (Advance directives are witnessed documents that describe what you desire in the event you are unable to communicate your wishes.)
10. To have your family and/or caregivers trained to care for you if you cannot care for yourself.
11. To be assured that your medical and personal information will remain confidential, and that you will have access to your medical record.
12. To voice grievances concerning patient care, treatments, and/or respect for person or privacy without being subject to discrimination or reprise; to have hospice investigate any such complaints; and to be informed of the procedures to lodge complaints with hospice.
13. To have information about the State of Indiana’s health care hotline, which receives questions and complaints about health care providers, including complaints about following advance directives.
14. To raise ethical issues concerning your care with your hospice team and/or with the hospital’s ethics committee, and to participate in their resolution.
15. To know in advance of any fees or charges for which you may be liable. You have a right to access any insurance or entitlement program for which you may be eligible.
16. To request and receive explanations regarding your bill, including payments, insurance status, and charges, and to have help determining financial need and assistance.
17. To withdraw from the program at any time and be assisted in obtaining alternative services.

1. To provide hospice with accurate and complete health information.
2. To participate as able in decisions about your medical treatment and the plan of care agreed upon by you and your hospice interdisciplinary team.
3. To understand and accept the consequences for the outcomes if you do not follow the plan of care agreed upon by you and your hospice team.
4. To remain under a physician’s care while receiving hospice services.
5. To inform your physician or other members of the hospice team if you do not understand your diagnosis or treatment, or if you desire a transfer of care to another physician or facility.
6. To ask your physician or hospice team members when you do not understand any information or instructions.
7. To accept your financial obligations associated with your care and to provide appropriate financial information when requesting financial assistance, if needed.
8. To follow hospice policies and procedures concerning patient care, safety, and conduct.
9. To show respect and consideration for hospice personnel and property.