Abstract
Recognition of patient rights in the form of a Patient Bill of Rights is a necessary, but not sufficient, step in the protection and promotion of patient rights. Rights are not self-actualizing. We may look forward to the day when all physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals will accord patients their basic human rights as a matter of course, but this day has not yet come. Until this goal is attained, mechanisms that can help to ensure that patient rights are protected and honored will be absolute necessities. Some of these mechanisms are discussed in this chapter. I continue to favor the one Jay Healey and I proposed in 1974: the patient rights advocate. This and other approaches to protecting the rights of patients are also discussed here.
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Notes
Annas & Healey, The Patient Rights Advocate: Redefining the Doctor-Patient Relationship in the Hospital Context, 27 Vand. L. Rev. 243 (1974). See also Regan, When Nursing Home Patients Complain: The Ombudsman or the Patient Advocate, 65 Georgetown L. J. 691(1977); and Rehr & Ravich, “An Ombudsman in a Hospital: A Patient Representative,” in Malick & Rehr, eds., In the Patient’s Interest (New York: Prodist, 1981), at 68-79. AIDS patients are particularly vulnerable to discrimination. H. L. Dalton et al., eds., AIDS and the Law (New Haven, Conn.: Yale U. Press, 1987).
P. Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (New York: Basic Books, 1982), at 389.
Id. at 391.
S. Terkel, Working (New York: Avon, 1972), at 647.
See, e.g., Sun, “Patient Reps Have a Problem: Winning Acceptance in Hospitals,” Medical News, Apr. 2, 1979, at 15; and Eisenberg, “Patient Representatives: Sometimes They Even Help Doctors,” Medical Economics, Sept. 15, 1980, at 80; and Scheier, “A Dilemma a Day for Ombudsman,” American Medical News, Feb. 5, 1988, at 21.
Gordon, “Insurers’ Limits on Hospital Stay Cause Concern for New Mothers,” Boston Globe, July 4, 1988, at 21, 23.
Survey of members of National Society of Patient Representatives, American Hospital Association, Feb. 1986. See also Mailick, “Models for Patient Representative Programs,” in Mailick & Rehr, supra 1, at 85.
Oral presentation to the trustees, Sept. 26, 1973 (personal communication).
E. Kennedy, In Critical Condition (New York: Pocket Books, 1973), at 49.
Hanlan, “Notes of a Dying Professor,” Penn Gazette, Feb. 1972, at 23 (his disease was eventually diagnosed as amyoatrophic lateral sclerosis [ALS], often called Lou Gehrig’s disease); see also A. H. Malcolm, This Far and No More (New York: Times Books, 1987).
Haggerty, vs. Magazine, Jan. 1973, at 16-17 and see supra note 6.
Some states require hospitals to have risk management systems as a way to improve the quality of care delivered in the hospital. Rhode Island’s statute, for example, requires each hospital and its insurance carrier to set up a risk management system with the following components: (1) an in-hospital grievance or complaint mechanism designed to process and resolve as promptly and effectively as possible grievances by patients or their representatives related to incidents, billing, inadequacies in treatment, and other factors known to influence medical malpractice claims and suits… (2) …the continuous collection of data by each hospital with respect to its negative health care outcomes (whether or not they give rise to claims), patient grievances, claims suits, professional liability premiums, [etc. ]… (3) …medical care evaluation mechanisms…. (4) …education programs for the hospital’s staff personnel engaged in patient care activities dealing with patient safety, medical injury prevention, the legal aspects of patient care, problems of communication and rapport with patients, and other relevant factors known to influence malpractice claims and suits. (R.I. Gen. Laws sec. 23-17-24 [1979]) And see “Patient Advocacy Programs Seen Curbing Hospital Malpractice Losses,” American Medical News, Apr. 6, 1979, at 7; Rubin, “Medical Malpractice SuitsCan Be Avoided,” Hospitals, JAHA, 1, 1978, at 86; J. E. Orlikoff & A. M. Vanagunas, Malpractice Prevention and Liability Control for Hospitals, 2d ed. (Chicago: American Hospital Association, 1988).
See R. E. Cranford & A. E. Doudera, eds., Institutional Ethics Committees and Health Care Decision Making (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Health Administration Press, 1984).
M. Lear, Heartsounds (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980); see also C. Ryan & K. M. Ryan, A Private Battle (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979), at 47.
Id. at 142-43.
A model Patient Bill of Rights is set forth in appendix B.
See ch. X, “Medical Records.”
See ch. VI, “Informed Consent.”
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© 1992 George J. Annas and the American Civil Liberties Union
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Annas, G.J. (1992). The Patient Rights Advocate. In: The Rights of Patients. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0397-1_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0397-1_15
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