For more information about any of these options please contact the Financial Counselor in the Patient FinancialServices department at 559-638-8155 ext. 1206.
Notice of Privacy Practices

This notice, describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to thisinformation. Please review it carefully

Patient Rights and Responsibilities

1. Considerate and respectful care, and to be made comfortable. You have the right to respect for your cultural,psychosocial, spiritual, and personal values, beliefs, and preferences.
2. Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
3. Know the name of the physician who has primary responsibility for coordinating your care and the names and professional relationships of other physicians and non-physicians who will see you.
4. Receive information about your health status, diagnosis, prognosis, course of treatment, prospects for recovery and outcomes of care (including unanticipated outcomes) in terms you can understand. You have the right to effective communication and to participate in the development and implementation of your plan of care. You have theright to participate in ethical questions that arise in the course of your care, including issues of conflict resolution,withholding resuscitative services, and forgoing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment
5. Make decisions regarding medical care, and receive as much information about any proposed treatment or procedure as you may need in order to give informed consent or to refuse a course of treatment. Except in emergencies, this information shall include a description of the procedure or treatment, the medically significantrisks involved, alternate courses of treatment or non-treatment and the risks involved in each, and the name of the person who will carry out the procedure or treatment.
6. Request or refuse treatment, to the extent permitted by law However, you do not have the right to demand inappropriate or medically unnecessary treatment or services. You have the right to leave the hospital even against the advice of physicians, to the extent pennitted by law.
7. Be advised if the hospital/personal 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.
8. Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
9. Appropriate assessment and management of your pain, information about pain, pain relief measures and toparticipate in pain management decisions. You may request or reject the use of any or all modalities to relieve thepain, including opiate medication, if you suffer from severe chronic intractable pain. The doctor may refuse toprescribe opiate medication, but if so, must inform you that there are physicians who specialize in the treatment ofsevere chronic pain with methods that include the use of opiates.
10. Formulate advance directives. This includes designating a decision maker if you become incapable ofunderstanding a proposed treatment or become unable to communicate your wishes regarding care. Hospital staffand practitioners who provide care in the hospital shall comply with these directives. All patient rights apply to theperson who has legal responsibility to make decisions regarding medical care on your behalf.
11. Have personal privacy respected. Case discussion, consultation, examination and treatment are confidential andshould be conducted discreetly. You have the right to be told the reason for the presence of any individual. Youhave the right to have visitors leave prior to an examination and when treatment issues are being discussed.Privacy curtains will be used in semi-private rooms.
12. Confidential treatment of all communications and records pertaining to your care and stay in the hospital. You willreceive a separate “Notice of Privacy Practices” that explains your privacy rights in detail and how we may use anddisclose your protected health information.
13. Receive care in a safe setting, free from mental, physical, sexual or verbal abuse and neglect, exploitation orharassment. You have the right to access protective and advocacy services including notifying governmentagencies of neglect or abuse.
14. Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliationby staff.
15. Reasonable continuity of care and to know in advance the time and location of appointments as well as the identityof the persons providing the care.
16. Be informed by the physician, or a delegate of the physician, of continuing health care requirements and options following discharge from the hospital. You have the right to be involved in the development and implementation ofyour discharge plan. Upon your request, a friend or family member may he provided with this information also.
17. Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
18. Designate visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether or not the visitor is related by blood or marriage, unless:
    1. No visitors are allowed.
    2. The facility reasonably determines that the presence of a particular visitor would endanger the health or safety ofa patient, a member of the health facility staff or other visitor to the health facility, or would significantly disrupt the operations of the facility.
    3. You have told the health facility staff that you no longer want a particular person to visit.However, a health facility may establish reasonable restrictions upon visitation, including restrictions upon thehours of visitation and number of visitors.
19. Have your wishes considered, if you lack decision-making capacity, for the purposes of determining who may visit.The method of that consideration will be disclosed in the hospital policy on visitation. At a minimum, the hospitalshall include any persons living in your household.
20. Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital’s bill regardless of the source of payment.
21. Exercise these rights without regard to sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, medicalcondition, marital status, sexual orientation, educational background, economic status or the source of payment forcare.
22. File a grievance:
    If you want to file a grievance with this hospital, you may do so by writing or calling:(559) 638-8155 ext. 2800 or Administration at ext. 1101
    Sierra Kings District Hospital
    Attn: Chief Compliance Officer
    372 W. Cypress Ave, Reedley, CA 93654
    The grievance committee will review each grievance and provide you with a written response within 30 days. Thewritten response will contain the name of a person to contact at the hospital, the steps taken to investigate thegrievance, the results of the grievance process, and the date of completion of the grievance process. Concernsregarding quality of care or premature discharge will also be referred to the appropriate Utilization and QualityControl Peer Review Organization (PRO).
23. File a complaint with the state Department of Public Health regardless of whether you use the hospital’s grievanceprocess. The state Department of Public Health’s phone number and address is:
    Dept of Public Health, Fresno District Office
    285 W. Bullard, Suite 101
    Fresno, CA 93704
    (559) 437-1500 or (800) 554-0351