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To Our Patients

The staff of Watsonville Community Hospital considers you a partner in your health care treatment plan. When you are well informed, participate in treatment decisions, and communicate openly with your physician (doctor) and other health care professionals, you help make your care as effective as possible. Watsonville Community Hospital believes that every patient and his or her family members are entitled to be treated with dignity, respect, and recognition of their integrity as individuals, regardless of race, sex, creed, color, age, or status.

Your Rights

As a patient of Watsonville Community Hospital, you have a right to:

·        Express your concerns about patient care and safety to hospital personnel and/or management.  If your concerns and questions can not be resolved at this level, contact the Joint Commission at 1-800-994-6610, by Fax 1-630-792-5636, by email complaint@jointcomission.org or by mail:

            Office of Quality Monitoring
            The Joint Commission
            One Renaissance Boulevard
            Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181

• Exercise these rights without regard to sex, economic status, educational background, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, or the source of payment for care.
• Receive considerate and respectful care.
• Know the name of the physician who has primary responsibility for coordinating your care and the names and professional relationships of the other physicians and medical staff who will see you as a patient.
• Receive information about your illness, the course of treatment, and the prospects for recovery in terms that you can understand.
• Receive as much information about any proposed treatment or procedure as you may need in order to give informed consent or to refuse this course of treatment. Except in emergencies, this information shall include a description of the procedure or treatment, the medically significant risks involved in this treatment, and alternate courses of treatment or nontreatment and the risks involved in each, and the name of the person who would carry out the procedure or treatment.
• Participate actively in decisions regarding your medical care. To the extent permitted by law, this includes the right to refuse treatment.
• Receive full consideration of privacy concerning your treatment plan. Case discussion, consultation, examination, and treatment are confidential and should be conducted discreetly. You have the right to be advised of the reason for the presence of any individual.
• Receive confidential treatment of all communications and records pertaining to your care and your stay in the hospital. Written permission shall be obtained before the medical records can be made available to anyone not directly concerned with the care.
• Receive reasonable responses to any reasonable request made for service.
• Leave the hospital, even against the advice of physicians.
• Receive reasonable continuity of care and to know in advance the time and location of appointments as well as the identity of the persons providing the care.
• Be advised if the hospital or a physician proposes to engage in or perform human experimentation affecting your care or treatment. You have the right to refuse to participate in such research projects.
• Be informed of continuing health care requirements following your discharge from the hospital.
• Examine and receive an explanation of the bill for your care, regardless of the source of payment.
• Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
• Have all patients’ rights apply to the person who may have legal responsibility to make decisions on your behalf regarding medical care.
• Formulate advance directives and to have hospital staff and practitioners who provide care in the hospital comply with these directives.
• Have your wishes considered for purposes of determining who may visit, if you lack decision-making capacity, and to have the method of that consideration be disclosed in the hospital on visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any persons living in your household.
• Designate visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitors are related by blood or marriage, unless:
  • no visitors are allowed; or
  • the facility reasonably determines that the presence of a particular  visitor would endanger the health or safety of a patient, a member of the health facility staff, or other visitor to the health facility, or would significantly disrupt the operations of the facility; or
  • you have indicated to the health facility that you no longer want a particular person to visit.
• Receive appropriate assessment and management of pain.
• Receive assistance in order to access protective services.
• Be free from restraints of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation by staff. Physical restraints may be applied only when ordered by a physician for a specific limited period of time, when necessary, to protect you or others from injury.
• Have a family member (or representative of your choice) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
• Voice opinions, conflicts, recommendations, and grievances in relation to policies and services offered by this facility, without fear of interference, coercion, discrimination, or reprisal. These issues may be addressed to your physician, hospital administrator, nursing staff, or customer service representative.

Your Responsibilities

As a patient of Watsonville Community Hospital, you have a responsibility to:

• Provide, to the best of your knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to your health.
• Report unexpected changes in your condition to the responsible practitioner.
• Report whether you clearly comprehend a contemplated course of action and what is expected of you.
• Follow the treatment plan recommended by the practitioner primarily responsible for your care. This may include following the instructions of nurses and allied health personnel as they carry out the coordinated plan of care and implement the responsible practitioner’s orders, and as they enforce the applicable hospital rules and regulations.
• Keep appointments, and when you are unable to do so for any reason, to notify the responsible practitioner or the hospital.
• Assure that the financial obligations for your health care are fulfilled as promptly as possible.
• Follow hospital rules and regulations affecting patient care and conduct.
• Be considerate of the rights of other patients and hospital personnel and to assist in the control of noise and the number of visitors.
• Be respectful of the property of other persons in the hospital.
• Participate in your treatment plan to the best of your ability.
• Abide by the smoking and visitation policies as outlined in our Patient Services Guide.