Awareness of the patients' rights by subjects on admission to a tertiary university hospital in Poland.

BACKGROUND

Knowledge of patients' rights is obligatory to create a partner-based relationship between the doctor and the patient. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the awareness of patients' rights by subjects admitted to a multidisciplinary university hospital in Poland.

METHODS

This project was cross-sectional in design and conducted between 06.2012 and 09.2012. The study group comprised 275 persons aged 57.4 ± 15.3 years. A 21-item questionnaire based on legal regulations on patients' rights was applied.

RESULTS

Over 80% of respondents were aware of their right to choose a treating physician, refusal of the proposed treatment, the choice of the place where the patient is treated, the right of access to medical records, free meals, pastoral care, ability to provide to third parties information about the state of health, as well as giving information to particular persons by phone. The least awareness was shown in relation to the form of giving consent (42.9%) or refusal of consent (50.5%) to treatment and the doctors' right to refuse the presence of a person close to the patient during treatment (16.4%). Factors of significant impact on the findings were participants' age and education level.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients are characterized by a considerable awareness of their rights. From the point of view of health care system, the most important is knowledge of the laws related to the broad access to medical services, including choice of attending physician but also to obtain assistance in emergency situations of life and health care in each facility health, regardless of place of residence.