Patient Rights and Responsibilities: Florida

Respecting Our Patients and Their Rights

Download: Patient Rights - Florida (English) | Patient Rights - Florida (Spanish)

Federal and state law requires that your health care provider or health care facility recognize your rights while you are receiving medical care and that you respect the health care provider’s or health care facility’s right to expect certain behavior on the part of patients. You may request a copy of the full text of your law from your health care provider or health care facility. A summary of your rights and responsibilities follows:

Patient Rights and Responsibilities

  1. A patient has the right to be treated with courtesy and respect, with appreciation of his or her cultural and personal values, beliefs, preferences, individual dignity, and with protection of his or her right to and need for privacy.
  2. A patient has a right to religious and spiritual accommodation.
  3. A patient has the right to a prompt and reasonable response to questions and requests.
  4. A patient has the right to know who is providing medical services and who is responsible for his or her care.
  5. A patient has the right to know what patient support services are available, including whether an interpreter is available if he or she does not speak English.
  6. A patient has a right to access available protective and advocacy services.
  7. A patient has a right to effective communication in a manner tailored to his or her age, language, and ability to understand, taking into account any vision, speech, hearing, or cognitive impairments.
  8. A patient has the right to bring any person or receive visitors of his or her choosing to the patient-accessible areas of the health care facility or provider’s office to accompany the patient while the patient is receiving inpatient or outpatient treatment or is consulting with his or her health care provider, unless doing so would risk the safety, rights, or health of the patient, other patients, or staff of the facility or office or cannot be reasonably accommodated by the facility or provider, as well as the right to withdraw or deny this consent to access at any time.
  9. A patient has the right to know what rules and regulations apply to his or her conduct.
  10. A patient has the right to send and receive mail promptly.
  11. A patient has the right to be given by the health care provider information concerning diagnosis, planned course of treatment, side effects, benefits, alternatives, risks, prognosis, outcomes of care necessary to participate in health care decisions, and any unanticipated outcomes of the patient’s care, treatment, and services.
  12. A patient has the right to pain management.
  13. A patient has the right to be fully informed regarding his or her health status, participate in the development and implementation of his or her plan of care, make informed decisions regarding care, and be informed in advance of changes to his or her plan of care.
  14. A patient has the right to request or refuse any treatment, including life-prolonging procedures, except as otherwise provided by law.
  15. A patient has the right to refuse treatment and life-prolonging procedures.
  16. A patient has the right to be free from neglect, harassment, exploitation, verbal, physical, mental, and sexual abuse, and corporal punishment.
  17. A patient has the right to be free from restraint or seclusion, of any form, imposed as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation by staff and to be subjected to restraint or seclusion only by trained staff to ensure the immediate physical safety of the patient, a staff member, or others and to have it discontinued at the earliest possible time.
  18. A patient has the right to have his or her allegations, observations, and suspected cases of neglect, exploitation, and abuse reported to appropriate authorities based on the hospital’s evaluation of the suspected events or as required by law.
  19. A patient has the right to written information concerning the health care facility’s policies respecting advance directives, including a copy of “Health Care Advance Directives – The Patient’s Right to Decide.”
  20. A patient has the right to formulate, review, or revise advance directives and to have hospital staff and practitioners who provide care in the hospital comply with these directives.
  21. A patient has the right, upon request, to be referred to resources for assistance in formulating advance directives.
  22. A patient has the right to not have treatment or admission conditioned upon whether or not the individual has executed or waived an advance directive.
  23. A patient has the right to have his or her advanced directive documented in his or her medical record.
  24. A patient has a right to have, upon request, his or her wishes concerning organ donation documented and to have hospital staff and practitioners who provide care in the hospital comply with those wishes within the limits of its capability, policy, and law and regulation.
  25. A patient has the right to designate a surrogate to make health care decisions on behalf of the patient in accordance with state law.
  26. A patient has the right to personal privacy, to receive care in a safe setting, and to be free from all forms of abuse or harassment.
  27. A patient has the right to participate in the consideration of ethical issues that arise in his or her care.
  28. A patient has the right to have a family member or representative of his or her choice and his or her physician notified promptly of his or her admission to the hospital.
  29. A patient has the right to involve his or her family in making decisions regarding his or her care, treatment, and services decisions, in accordance with law and regulation.
  30. A patient has the right to confidentiality of his or her clinical records and to access, request amendment to, and obtain information on disclosures of his or her health information contained in his or her clinical records as permitted by law as quickly as the record keeping system permits.
  31. A patient has the right to be given, upon request, full information and necessary counseling on the availability of known financial resources for his or her care.
  32. A patient who is eligible for Medicare has the right to know, upon request and in advance of treatment, whether the health care provider or health care facility accepts the Medicare assignment rate.
  33. A patient has the right to receive, upon request, prior to treatment, a reasonable estimate of charges for medical care.
  34. A patient has the right to receive a copy of a reasonably clear and understandable, itemized bill and, upon request, to have the charges explained.
  35. A patient has the right to receive notice of non-coverage and a right to appeal premature discharge.
  36. A patient has the right to impartial access to medical treatment or accommodations, regardless of age, sex, race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or source of payment.
  37. A patient has the right to treatment for any emergency medical condition that will deteriorate from failure to provide treatment.
  38. A patient has the right to receive information on alternative care, treatment, and services available.
  39. A patient has the right to know if medical treatment is for purposes of experimental research, receive an explanation of the nature, purpose, expected duration, procedures to be followed, and possible consequences, benefits, risks, discomforts, and side effects before the research or experiment is conducted, and to give his or her consent or refusal to participate in such experimental research without any impact on his or her access to care, treatment, and services unrelated to the research.
  40. A patient has the right to express grievances regarding any violation of his or her rights, as stated in Florida law, through the grievance procedure of the health care provider or health care facility which served him or her and to the appropriate state licensing agency.
  41. A patient has the right to information about procedures for initiating, reviewing and resolving patient complaints.
  42. A patient is responsible for providing to the health care provider, to the best of his or her knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to his or her health.
  43. A patient is responsible for reporting unexpected changes in his or her condition to the health care provider.
  44. A patient is responsible for asking questions or acknowledging to the health care provider when he or she does not comprehend a treatment course or care decision and what is expected of him or her.
  45. A patient is responsible for supporting mutual consideration and respect by maintaining civil language and conduct in interactions with staff and licensed independent practitioners.
  46. A patient is responsible for following the treatment plan recommended by the health care provider.
  47. A patient is responsible for keeping appointments and, when he or she is unable to do so for any reason, for notifying the health care provider or health care facility.
  48. A patient is responsible for his or her actions if he or she refuses treatment or does not follow the health care provider’s instructions.
  49. A patient is responsible for assuring that the financial obligations of his or her health care are fulfilled as promptly as possible.
  50. A patient is responsible for following health care facility rules and regulations affecting patient care and conduct.

Download: Patient Rights - Florida (English) | Patient Rights - Florida (Spanish)

Concerns or Complaints

Your satisfaction is important to us. If you have a concern or a complaint, please allow the person responsible for your care or their supervisor the opportunity to listen, review, and to assist you with an appropriate resolution. If your complaint is unresolved, please ask to speak to the department’s manager, director or the house supervisor. If your concern cannot be resolved by the AdventHealth process indicated, please allow the facility the opportunity to address your grievance.