Patient Rights and Responsibilities Statements from College Health Services

In this issue of CQ, keeping with the theme of "moving toward quality assurance," I have showcased statements of Patient Rights and Responsibilities. Some are short, some are long. Some are similar, others are different. The variety provides a "supermarket" approach for us to pick and choose the items that best fit our own situation, thus giving us the "groceries" we need to "cook up" a really good statement of patient rights and responsibilities for our own health center.

Most all of the statements listed used ACHA's, AAAHC's, and/or JCAH's standards as guides in constructing their statements. Writing and posting a statement of patient rights and responsibilities gives greater credibility to the student health service by helping us comply with recommended standards, thus moving us toward quality assurance.

This is a standard that even small health services can meet. I collected the information to use in constructing our own statement for our health service, and it is my hope that by putting this collection in CQ on the www it will help others do the same.

I extend sincere thanks to the wonderful college health folks who submitted the statements for me to publish in CQ on the World Wide Web. I received many responses and published those which were sent to me in electronic format (email). If you would like to have health center's rights and responsibilities statement added to the list of those available in the Winter issue of CQ on my website, please send me your statement in email format or as an email attachment. It may be January before it appears on the CQ website, but I am willing to include your statement if you are willing to send it to me in email (so I don't have to retype it). If you currently have it on your webpage and want me to include it on the CQ webpage, type me an email message giving me permission to use it.

Just a note: The hard copy version of CQ includes three of the statements of patient rights and responsibilities;CQ on the web currently includes thirteen. That's a good reason to be networked and read CQ on the web!

Go to the first statement of patient rights and responsibilities.

Go to the menu of selections in the Winter 1996 issue of CQ.