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(904) 244-0411

Patient Rights & Responsibilities

Patient Relations: (904) 244-4427

We encourage all patients to know and understand their rights and responsibilities as written in the Florida Statutes and UF Health policy. These are listed below. If you have any questions about your rights and responsibilities, or any concerns about your hospitalization, Patient Relations, as well as your health care team, are available to help you. They will make every attempt to address your concerns as quickly as possible.

Our patients have the right to:

  • Be treated with courtesy and respect, with appreciation of individual dignity, and with protection of privacy.
  • A prompt and reasonable response to questions and requests.
  • Know who is providing medical services and who is responsible for his/her care.
  • Know what patient support services are available, including whether an interpreter is available if he/she does not speak English or has a hearing impairment.
  • Know what rules and regulations apply to his/her conduct.
  • Be provided with written information about advance directives and available health care decision-making options in Florida. A patient had the right to formulate advance directives and to have he medical staff and hospital personnel caring for the patient implement and comply with his/her advance directives.
  • Medicare patient has the right to receive a "notice of beneficiary discharge rights", "notice of non-coverage rights", and "notice of the beneficiary right to appeal preliminary discharge."
  • Participate in decisions involving his/her health care, including consideration of ethical issues. A patient has the right to participate in the development, including any revisions, and implementation of his/her inpatient treatment/care plan, outpatient treatment/care plan, his/her discharge plan, and his/her pain management plan.
  • Make informed decisions regarding his/her care, including the right to receive information from the health care provider about diagnosis, planned course of treatment, including surgical interventions, alternatives, risks, and prognosis and outcomes of care that may impact his/her decisions regarding treatment.
  • Accept or refuse treatment, except as otherwise provided by law.
  • To have a family member or representative of his/her choice and his/her own physician notified promptly of his/her admission to the hospital upon request.
  • Be given, upon request, full information and necessary counseling on the availability of financial resources for his/her care.
  • Know, if eligible for Medicare, upon request and in advance of treatment, whether the health care provider or health care facility accepts the Medicare assignment rate.
  • Receive, upon request prior to treatment, a reasonable estimate of charges for medical care. Such reasonable estimate shall not preclude the health care provider or the health care facility from exceeding the estimate or making additional charges based on changes in the patient's condition or treatment needs.
  • Receive a copy of a clear and understandable itemized bill upon request and to have the charges explained.
  • Impartial access to medical treatment or accommodations regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression.
  • Receive treatment for any emergency medical condition that will deteriorate from failure to provide treatment.
  • Know if medical treatment is for experimental research purposes and to consent or refuse to participate in such experimental research knowing that refusal will not compromise access to any other services.
  • To know the hospital's procedure for expressing a grievance. A patient has the right to express grievances regarding any violation of his/her rights through the grievance procedure of the health care provider or health care facility which served him/her and to the appropriate regulatory agency.
    • Agency for Health Care Administration
      2727 Mahan Drive
      Tallahassee, FL 32308
      (888) 419-3456 or
    • Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization
      Office of Quality Monitoring
      One Renaissance Boulevard
      Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
      (800) 994-6610
  • Personal privacy, except as limited for the delivery of appropriate care.
  • Receive care in a safe setting.
  • Be free from all forms of abuse, neglect and harassment whether from staff, other patients or visitors.
  • The confidentiality of his her clinical records, except as provided by law.
  • Except under limited circumstances, to access information contained in his/her clinical records within a reasonable time frame.
  • Access individuals outside the hospital by means of visitors and by written or verbal communication. When it becomes necessary to restrict communication, the therapeutic effectiveness of the restriction will be periodically evaluated.
  • Retain and use personal clothing or possessions if space permits and it does not interfere with another patient or medical care.
  • Be free from restraints or seclusion used as means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation.
  • Appropriate assessment and management of pain.
  • Access any mode of treatment, including complementary or alternative healthcare treatments, that is, in his/her own judgment and the judgment of his/her physician(s), in the patient's best interest, to the extent that such mode of treatment is offered by the hospital.

Our patients are responsible for:

  • Providing to the health care provider, to the best of his/her knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to his/her health.
  • Reporting unexpected changes in his/her condition to the health care provider.
  • Reporting to the health care provider whether he/she understands a planned course of action and what is expected of him/her.
  • Following the treatment plan recommended by the health care provider.
  • Keeping appointments and, when unable to do so for any reason, for notifying the health care provider or health care facility.
  • His/her actions if he/she refuses treatment or does not follow the health care provider's instructions.
  • Assuring the financial obligations of his/her health care are fulfilled as promptly as possible.
  • Following health care facility rules and regulations on patient care and conduct.
  • Notifying the health care provider of any advance directive(s) he/she may have executed.
  • Being respectful of the property of other persons and of the hospital.

Upon request a copy of the Florida Statue 381.026, Florida Patients Bill of Rights and Responsibilities shall be provided to the patient or patient's representative.

If you have a problem you are unable to solve, please call Patient Relations at (904) 244-4427. HMO Hotline: 1-800-226-1062.