Patient Rights & Responsibilities
We respect our patients’ dignity and pride. This document will explain your patient rights and responsibilities. It is part of your patient registration and is an important part of your health care plan.
Privacy Notices
This privacy notice describes how health information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.
- Notice of Privacy Practices (provided for you at your first visit)
- Aviso Sobre Las Practicas De Privacidad (proporcionada por usted en su primera visita)
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Informed Consent
You will be asked to sign usually three consents. Two are included below for you to review. Do not print out and complete--we will have what you need on the day of the procedure.
One is the Facility Consent entitled "Informed Consent to Treat and Disclose" (see below), which includes general information about surgery as well as privacy, disclosure and payment.
A second consent is about Anesthesia (see below) and includes specific information about the requirements, risks and complications of Anesthesia.
The third is not included below because it is a Procedure Specific Consent that lists the specific risks and complications of that particular surgery or procedure. In accordance with applicable State law and regulations, in the case of surgery or any other special procedure, it is the responsibility of the treating physician to inform the patient about the recommended care so that his decision may be meaningful.
This includes discussing the nature of the treatment, its risks, possible complications, expected benefits or effects, the alternatives and their risks and expected benefits, and the consequences of refusing the treatment. This process should have already taken place in the physician's office prior to the day of surgery.
The treating physician must then document the process of informed consent in the patient's medical record either on a form we provide the day of surgery or by providing us with a copy of what he used in his office setting. The Center staff will actually act as a witness to yours and the physician's signature by also signing the form.
Advance Directives
In the State of Florida, all patients have the right to participate in their own healthcare decisions and to make Advance Directives or to execute Power of Attorney that authorize others to make decisions on their behalf, based on the patient’s expressed wishes when the patient is unable to make decisions or unable to communicate decisions. The St. Lucie Surgery Center respects and upholds those rights. However, unlike in an acute care hospital setting, the Surgery Center does not routinely perform “high risk” procedures.
Most procedures performed in this facility are considered to be of minimal risk. Of course, no surgery is without risk. You will discuss the specifics of your procedure with your physician who can answer your questions as to its risks, your expected recovery, and care after surgery. Therefore, it is our policy, regardless of the contents of any Advance Directive or instructions from a health care surrogate or attorney-in-fact, that if an adverse event occurs during your treatment at this facility, we will initiate resuscitative or other stabilizing measures and transfer you to an acute care hospital for further evaluation. At the acute care hospital further treatment or withdrawal of treatment measures already begun will be ordered in accordance with the patient’s wishes, Advance Directive or Health Care Power of Attorney. The patient’s agreement with this policy by signature does not revoke or invalidate any current health care directive or health care power of attorney.
Should the patient’s Advance Directive include a non-resuscitation clause, the patient will be informed that the St. Lucie Surgery Center will not honor this request in our Facility and that they will need to sign an Ambulatory Surgery Center Patient Consent To Resuscitative Measures. Without such Advance Directive suspension, the procedure cannot be performed in the Center.
If the patient does not have an Advance Directive, they will be asked if they would like a brochure. The Center will provide adult individuals, upon request, with written information about their rights under State law to make health care decisions, including the right to accept or refuse treatment and the right to execute Advance Directives. No patient will be discriminated against because of his/her wishes about Advance Directives