Abstract
Respecting patients’ rights is a fundamental aspect of providing quality healthcare. The present investigation attempts to explore the awareness among patients about their rights in a coastal township in India. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 215 patients admitted to the wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Mangalore. Awareness among patients regarding their rights varied for various issues and ranged between 48.4 and 87.4 %. Awareness about patients’ rights was independent of gender, socio-economic and educational status. Doctors were found to be the most common source of information for patient’s about their rights in the study. Doctors must conform to the relevant legislations and involve patients in all aspects of healthcare. There is a need to increase awareness among patients about their rights to ensure informed decisions and better health care services.
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Author Contributions
BU, DT and TK conceived the study. DT was involved in data collection and helped in review of literature. BU, TK and RT analysed the data statistically, made the tables, wrote results and contributed to review of literature. PM, NK, VK, RH and MT contributed to the introduction, Materials and methods and discussion of the manuscript. All the authors reviewed and edited the manuscript for intellectual content, and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Ethics Committee approval was obtained from the IEC of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore (A Constitute Institute of Manipal University), prior to the commencement of the study. Following the approval from the IEC, permission was taken from the medical superintendent of the hospital. The aims and objectives of the study were explained to the patients, following which a written informed consent was taken from those who were willing to participate in the study.
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The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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Unnikrishnan, B., Trivedi, D., Kanchan, T. et al. Patients’ Awareness About Their Rights: A Study from Coastal South India. Sci Eng Ethics 23, 203–214 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9776-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9776-z