“Hey, you can’t do that to me, I have rights!” And, on December 15, I’ll celebrate the rights enumerated in the 232 year-old Bill of Rights. Among these first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, Americans enjoy freedoms relating to religion, speech, assembly, bearing arms, search and seizure, prosecution, and punishment.
In recent history, a custom Bill of Rights has been written for various people, including children, passengers, patients, tenants, and taxpayers. Given my husband Robert’s 8-day October stint in hospital, this post focuses on a Patient’s Bill of Rights.
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As expected, a statement of Patient Rights and Responsibilities provides for nondiscriminatory care regardless of classification in a protected class like age, race, socioeconomic status, religion, or disability. Surprisingly I found introductory text (not part of the Patient’s Rights statement) limiting patient protections to those who are “sick or injured” and referring to disabilities as “challenges”—an inaccurate euphemism shading disability as a problem to overcome.
Robert’s rights were mostly respected during his stay as shown below:
- His refusal to allow an ER doctor to insert an IV in the bone of his upper arm was accepted.
- His interest in pastoral care was documented when he was being processed for hospital admission. As a result, he was visited by both his own church pastor and the hospital chaplain.
- Communication between Robert and health care staff was facilitated by ensuring that he had access to his hearing aids.
- The reasons for his transfer from a regular room to the Progressive Care Unit, staffed by ICU nurses, was explained.
- He was informed and participated in decisions affecting his care, health status, services and treatment.
- He was permitted to choose his spouse to assist him in care, treatment, and service decisions.
- He was told what he needed to know about his health condition after hospital discharge.
However, the following rights were disrespected:
- A hospital doctor did not inform Robert of the risks associated with inserting an IV in a vein in his upper arm in the location that might be needed for future kidney dialysis treatments. This was especially egregious given that Robert has stage four kidney disease and his treating physician would not have agreed to using this vein.
- A nurse threatened the equivalent of a physical restraint when she chastised Robert for exiting a recliner chair without staff supervision. She treated Robert like a child when she threatened the consequence of putting him back in bed so that he couldn’t get up independently. Her issue was more about a staffing shortage than safety!
- Individual dignity was trashed when he had to lay in his own excrement for an extended period of time after being plied with laxatives and a suppository.
Finally, even though Robert had a say in who could visit him, an out-of-reach handset prevented his wife from calling to request entry into the ICU. A Bill of Rights should provide accessibility to a patient’s disabled visitors.
Please share how well your rights as a patient have been protected.
You may also want to read:
- Bill of Rights. 1791. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/billofrights
- Florida Patient Rights and Responsibilities. Cleveland Clinic. 2023. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/about/website/patients-rights-responsibilities#florida-patient-rights-tab
- Patient Rights and Responsibilities. Cleveland Clinic Martin Health. November 2020. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/about/patient-rights-responsibilities/florida-patient-rights-and-responsibilities-english.pdf?la=en
- Angela Muir Van Etten. “My Path to Citizenship.” Blog post. December 18, 2022. https://angelamuirvanetten.com/my-path-to-citizenship/