In short
A violation of a patient right is the harming, in the concrete event, of information, privacy, access to the record, or respectful care. A bad medical result is not counted, on its own, as a violation or as a medical error. The first record is most often at the institution's patient-rights unit. This unit is not a court, and it does not award compensation of itself. The later route splits in a public and a private institution. The application scatters if the event, the date, and the result that is wanted are not written. The procedure of a complaint about a physician is in the article a complaint about a doctor.
First, what the violation is, and which remedy is wanted, should be determined
Not every adverse experience in a health service enters the same legal category. Information not being given, a violation of privacy, the patient file not being shared, an act without consent, discriminatory conduct, or disrespectful communication can give rise to a discussion of a patient right. The claim that the diagnosis and the treatment were contrary to the medical standard requires an examination of malpractice. A waiting period, or an appointment problem, can also be assessed differently, according to the cause of the event, as a lack of organisation or as dissatisfaction with the service.
Before an application is made, the questions "What happened?" and "Which remedy do I want?" should be answered separately. The applicant may ask for an explanation, a copy of the record, the correction of the act, the stopping of the privacy violation, an administrative examination, or the remedying of the harm. Building a connection of the concrete right, the event, and the request is more functional than asking, in a single petition, for all the health workers to be punished.
This content is for general information. In a need for urgent treatment, an administrative application should not be waited for. Health safety and the complaint process should be carried on separately.
In which areas do the basic patient rights come onto the agenda?
Patient rights aim at the protection of human dignity and of the freedom of decision while the person receives a health service. The scope of the rights is not unlimited. They are assessed together with medical necessity, the rights of the other patients, public health, and the reasonable functioning of the institution. Despite this, the technical character of the health service does not do away with the patient's right relating to information and to respectful treatment.
The headings often met in practice are these:
- Receiving understandable information about the state of health and the treatment that is proposed
- Consenting to a medical intervention, or refusing it within the legal limits
- The protection of privacy and of personal health data
- Accessing one's own health records
- Receiving a service that is safe, far from discrimination, and respectful
- Rights relating to the choice of a physician or of an institution, within the legislation and the possibilities of the institution
- Reasonable requests relating to the arrangement of a visitor, a companion, and communication
- Access to the routes of complaint and of application
Not every one of these rights is subject to the same regime of application and of result. For example, a request for a document may be needed for access to the record, a separate official application for a personal-data violation, and an examination of responsibility for medical harm.
The separation of a patient-rights violation, dissatisfaction, and malpractice
The patient may not be satisfied with the result of the treatment. The result does not, on its own, show a violation of a right or a fault. A medical service most often does not guarantee a certain result. In a claim of malpractice, whether the health worker complied with the professional standard expected in the concrete conditions, the harm, and the causal link are examined. The general frame is in the article what is medical malpractice?.
A violation of a patient right can come onto the agenda even if no harm has formed. For example, the disclosure of health information to an unrelated person can give rise to a privacy problem even if the technical treatment was correct. Rough conduct towards the patient, even if it does not affect the medical result, can be examined as regards respectful care and the discipline of the institution. Against this, the health worker not giving a medication that the patient wanted and that is not medically suitable is not, on its own, a violation of a right.
The same event can carry more than one dimension. In an intervention carried out without information, the right of decision comes onto the agenda. In a claim of a technically wrong act, the professional standard comes onto the agenda. In the file not being given, access to the record comes onto the agenda. Each heading requires separate evidence and a separate request.
The right to receive information and to an informed decision
The patient should receive, in a language he can understand, information about the diagnosis, the intervention that is proposed, the important risks, the reasonable options, and the possible results of refusing the treatment. Information is not only the listing of technical terms. The person should be able to have his questions answered, and should be able to find a suitable time for the decision. It is not expected that the health worker will tell every remote possibility in the same detail. The information that is important for the decision is taken as the basis.
The putting of a signature on the consent form does not show that all the information obligations were performed automatically. Whether the form is specific to the act, when it was signed, and the content of the interview are important. Together with this, the absence of a form does not, on its own, lead in every situation to the result that the intervention was certainly contrary to the law. The emergency and the concrete conditions are examined.
The details of the right of decision are explained in the content what is informed consent?. A violation of information and a technical treatment error are separate questions. Which of them is put forward in the application should be clear.
Privacy, and the protection of health data
The examination setting being open to unnecessary persons, health information being announced in the corridor, the results being sent to the wrong person, or the patient's image being published without permission, can give rise to a discussion of privacy. Because health data are of a special character, the access, the purpose of use, and the scope of sharing should be limited carefully. The treatment team's access to the information necessary for the service, and the disclosure of the data to an unrelated third person, are not the same.
In a suspicion of a violation, the following information can be recorded:
- Which data or image was shared?
- Who, or which system, made the sharing?
- To whom, on which date, and by which channel did it reach?
- What was explained about the patient's consent or the legal basis?
- Is the data still accessible, and was a request for removal or for correction made?
A screenshot, or a message sent wrongly, can be evidence. The health data of other persons should not be multiplied unnecessarily. Requests such as the stopping of the violation, the examination of the record of access to the data, and notification to the relevant persons can be made concrete. The personal-data route and a complaint about the health service may require different authorities.
The right of access to the patient file
The patient can make a request to see the medical records that belong to him and to take a copy by a suitable method. The institution can keep the original of the records. This situation does not mean that no copy will be given to the patient at all. Rules such as identity verification, the protection of the information of third persons, and a safe method of delivery can be applied. The request should be open and written.
Rather than only "I want my file", the following documents can be stated: examination notes, laboratory results, images, operation and anaesthesia records, nursing observations, medication charts, consent forms, consultation and discharge documents. The image report and the original image are different. If it is needed, both should be asked for.
For the method of application and the scope of the documents, the guide a request for the patient file can be examined. The record headings also stand in the malpractice document list. If the institution refuses the request, asking for a written reasoning determines which subject the later application will rest on. The patient file should not be requested in a form that will unnecessarily contain the private information of another patient or of a health worker.
The right to accept, to refuse, and to withdraw the treatment
An adult patient who has the capacity to decide can accept or refuse the treatment that is proposed, after sufficient information. The health results of the refusal should be explained in an understandable way and recorded. It is also possible for the patient to change the decision. This right is not a right to force the health worker to carry out an act that is not medically suitable, or that is contrary to the law.
A genuine emergency, statutory measures relating to contagious diseases, children, and persons for whom representation is needed, may be subject to different conditions. A relative deciding in the patient's place is not valid for every adult. Whether the capacity to decide exists, communication support, and the will the patient explained in advance are taken into account.
A form of refusal of treatment is also not a simple document of responsibility that takes the place of the information. The risks should be explained to the patient. Whether the refusal was free and conscious should be assessed. The health worker frightening the patient, or asking for a signature without explaining the treatment, can lead to a problem of a patient right.
Respectful care, discrimination, and communication problems
Health workers may serve in busy and difficult conditions. This situation does not justify degrading, discriminatory, or threatening conduct towards the patient. On the other hand, the patient not being able to receive the service at the time he wanted, or waiting because of a medical priority, does not show discrimination on its own. In emergency services, the priority can be determined according to clinical necessity.
In a claim of discrimination, a comparable event, the expression that was used, the result of access to the service, and the witnesses if there are any, are important. If the person cannot access the information because of his language, his disability, or his communication need, whether reasonable support was provided can be examined. The application text should state the concrete word, the conduct, the date, and the effect, rather than a general sentence "I was treated badly".
A communication problem can be resolved quickly through the person responsible at the institution or the patient-rights unit. Together with this, in events in which there is a claim of physical safety or of an offence, more different and urgent routes may come onto the agenda.
How should the violation be documented?
For the application file, the date, the hour, the department, the relevant person or duty, the witness, the correspondence, and the remedy that is requested can be recorded. The hospital wristband, the appointment record, the e-mail, the application number, and the institution's answer support the time at which the event took place. If the medical record is needed, it should be requested early. A change should not be made on the documents.
Taking a secret sound or image recording can give rise to separate risks as regards personal data and criminal law. It should not be assumed that it is a free method of evidence in every situation. First, written records in accordance with the law, witness information, and the official application system should be used. Making a certain accusation of an offence by a person's name on social media can create problems of the right of personality independent of the main dispute.
The chronology of the event can be kept short:
- The purpose of the health service and the time of the application
- The concrete conduct thought to be a violation
- The reaction given, or the notification made, at that moment
- The effect on health or on privacy
- The correction requested from the institution
- The answer that was received, and the later development
This order makes it easier for the institution to examine the event and, when needed, for the later authorities to understand the file.
The application inside the institution, and the administrative application
The patient-rights unit of the health institution may be the point of application for the event to be recorded, for an explanation to be taken from the relevant unit, and for a corrective act to be carried out inside the institution. An application number should be taken, and the list of the annexes should be kept. If the urgent treatment continues, the application should be carried on in a way that will not spoil safe communication with the care team.
The administrative supervision channels to which the public or private health institution is tied may also come onto the agenda according to the kind of the violation. The application is made not for the purpose of the relevant health worker being punished automatically, but for the event to be examined and for the necessary measure to be determined. A certain result should not be expected before the defence and the examination of the record are completed.
The process of a complaint about a doctor explains in detail the differences of the routes focused on the administration, the profession, the criminal matter, and compensation. If a result cannot be obtained in an application, the reasoning of the decision should be read. Rather than sending the same text to all the institutions, the conditions of the relevant route should be assessed.
Compensation, and the other legal routes
If the violation of a patient right has led to material or non-material harm, compensation may come onto the agenda. The determination of a violation does not create a result of automatic payment in every situation. The kind of the harm, its scope, and its connection with the violation should be documented. The treatment being delayed because the record was not given, and there being only a delay in the answer, can give rise to different results.
For the frame of a service fault and of administrative responsibility in a public hospital, the route of compensation in a public hospital should be taken into account. In a private hospital, the private-law relationship and the institution's responsibility for organisation are assessed. A dimension of personal data, of a criminal matter, or of professional discipline may arise separately.
The periods of the different routes are not the same. The date of the violation, the date of learning, the application to the institution, and the services should be recorded separately. It should not be assumed, while waiting for the institution's answer, that another period that causes a loss of a right is not running. The current legislation should be checked in the concrete event.
Where the application is read from
The application to the institution, the request for the record, and the kind of the violation are read side by side. An amount that is not written in the file is not added. The patient-rights unit is not put in the place of a court. The office in Çankaya does not choose the authority of the patient's application.
In the health institutions in Ankara and in Çankaya as well, the basic content of patient rights rests on the national legislation. The local units of the institution may be the addressee in fact of the application. The scope of the rights does not change from city to city. The institution's current electronic or physical application channel should be confirmed from an official source. The delivery record should be kept. Local density does not provide a guarantee of an exact answer period or of a positive result.
If a violation of a patient right is thought of, the order is as follows:
- If there is treatment that continues, health safety is secured first.
- The conduct thought to be a violation is written with the date and the unit.
- The copy of the record that is needed is requested separately.
- A written application is given to the institution's patient-rights unit, and the record number is kept.
- The answer is compared with the result that was wanted. The later route is chosen according to whether the institution is public or private.
Privacy should be protected, and accusations of a person that have not been verified should be avoided.
Patient rights are not a tool that obstructs the health service. They are part of safe and respectful care. The upper legal frame is on the page the practice area of health law. Each event is assessed separately over the kind of the violation, the character of the institution, the harm, and the current legislation. It cannot be undertaken that the application will end with a certain result.
Conclusion
This article is for general information. The document, the period, and the procedure of the concrete event should be read separately. There is no promise of a result from memory.
An Ankara lawyer does not write, in patient rights, an amount that does not stand in the file.