Patient's Rights and Responsibilities Why

Patient's Rights And Responsibilities Why are a patient's responsibilities as important as his or her rights? That question will be critiqued and evaluated in this paper because rights and responsibilities go hand in hand when an individual is attempting to follow his or her doctor's orders and maintain a healthy lifestyle. A Patient's Responsibilities Trisha Torrey writes in About.com (a New York Times publication) that the patient has a number of important responsibilities.

Those include, first of all, "maintaining healthy habits." Maintaining healthy habits is easily the most important responsibility for any patient. Why? Because if a person is engaging in unhealthy activities and not maintaining a responsible approach to diet and exercise -- or that person is using illegal drugs or abusing prescription medicines -- there is nothing healthcare professionals can do to help that person (Torrey, 2010, p. 1). Secondly, a patient must be respectful and honest with his or her healthcare providers.

If a patient does not provide all relevant information to the doctor or nurse, that can mean that the patient is "not getting the care" that is needed (Torrey, p. 1). Also, it is the patient's responsibility to "comply" with any treatment plan that the doctor or other healthcare provider has worked out. To go outside the boundaries that have been established in terms of good health for that patient is to put one's self in jeopardy of unhealthy results (Torrey, p. 1).

Other key components of patient responsibilities include: a) properly preparing for potential emergencies; b) making healthcare decisions "responsibly" (that is, trying to leave emotions out of decisions); c) fully understanding prescription drugs and the potential effects of those medicines' d) "meeting financial obligations" (having insurance, for example); and e) "avoiding putting others at risk" (citizens have a responsibility not to harm others, so if a person is infected with a communicable disease like tuberculosis, or HIV, that carries with it a tremendous responsibility to be cautious and alert) (Torrey, p. 2).

A Patient's Rights There are a number of lists to go by when it comes to the patient's "Bill of Rights," including a patient's rights under the Affordable Care Act. In the American Cancer Society "Patient's Bill of Rights" it begins with the right every patient has to "…accurate and easily-understood information about your health plan, health care professionals, and health care facilities' (www.cancer.org).

Of course a patient also has the right to choose health care providers and when it comes to emergency services, a patient has a right to be "…screened and stabilized using emergency services" when injured or seriously ill; so that when one's health is in jeopardy, access to emergency services can be a vital and stabilizing experience (www.cancer.org).

A patient also has the right to be part of decisions regarding what treatment is appropriate, and a patient has a right to be respected and treated without discrimination regardless of one's gender, national origin, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, physical disability or "source of payment" (www.cancer.org). It is always a patient's right to have his.