Memorial Health's Purpose
Memorial Health has service to the community at the heart of its mission. Our purpose is to provide high-quality healthcare to all.
The following statement of patients' rights and responsibilities summarizes the relationship that Memorial Health has with you, our patients. There are additional rights and responsibilities involved in the patient/physician relationship, and you may discuss these with your attending physician.
In addition to providing care for illnesses and injuries, Memorial Health also works to prevent and treat disease, conduct clinical research and provide education to health professionals and our patients. However, our first priority is our concern for our patients and the recognition of their dignity as human beings.
Memorial Health and its affiliates comply with applicable federal civil rights laws and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex. Memorial Health does not exclude people or treat them differently because of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex.
Patient Rights
As a patient of Memorial Health, you have the right:
Respect, Dignity and Privacy
- To receive safe, considerate and respectful care.
- To have your cultural, spiritual and personal values, beliefs and wishes respected.
- To request religious and spiritual services.
- To the privacy and confidentiality of your medical records as further explained in the Notice of Privacy Practices.
Access to care
- To receive care, no matter your age, sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
Visitation and Support
- To receive visitors of your choosing, or to decide that you do not want visitors. Memorial Health may restrict or limit visitors in certain situations for health and safety reasons. You have the right to know about these restrictions and the reasons for them.
- To choose someone to provide emotional support while you are in our care, such as a family member, friend or domestic or same-sex partner.
Social Services
- At our affiliate hospitals, social workers are available to assist patients and family members with counseling and planning for going home. Through counseling, they can help you understand and seek solutions to social, emotional and financial problems.
- They also can arrange placement in an extended care or nursing facility or help plan for services such as homemakers, meal delivery or medical transportation.
Information and Involvement in Care Decisions
- To have advance directives, such as a Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare, that state your wishes or name someone to make medical decisions for you if you are injured or seriously ill and unable to speak for yourself.
- To have a family member, support person, domestic or same-sex partner, or another individual of your choice make healthcare decisions for you, to the extent permitted by law.
- To ask us to inform your physician, a family member or another representative of your choosing when you are admitted to the hospital.
- To know your physicians and other caregivers, and their roles in your care.
- To obtain information about the facility’s relationship to other healthcare and educational institutions if it affects your care.
- To be informed and involved in decisions that affect your care, including expected and unexpected outcomes for your health condition, treatment, discharge and pain management plans.
- To be told about care alternatives if your current treatment is no longer appropriate for your condition.
- To be involved in the decision-making process for your care. Parents or guardians of children or adolescents have a right to be involved on behalf of their children, with limited exceptions.
- To refuse any medical treatment or leave the facility against your physician’s or caregiver’s advice, to the extent allowed by law. If you refuse treatment or leave, you have the right to be informed of the potential consequences of that refusal. Your physicians, caregivers and Memorial Health will not be responsible for any harm caused to you or others by your refusal.
- To ask for a second opinion regarding your medical care.
- To be informed of any serious sentinel event related to your care.
- To know if your care or treatment is part of an experimental or research program. You have the right to refuse to participate in any such program.
- To have your organ donations wishes known and honored, according to the law.
- To request your medical records and to have any information in them explained to you.
- To ask us for help with ethical issues and difficult decisions about your care.
- To see your medical bills and have them explained to you.
- To ask about help in paying your bill or filing insurance forms.
Smoking & Tobacco Use
- To receive care in a tobacco-free environment. Memorial Health and all affiliate hospitals, clinics and other locations are tobacco-free. Smoking, other tobacco use and smokeless cigarettes are not allowed including entranceways and parking lots.
- To be free from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and harassment.
- To access protective and advocacy agencies.
- To be free of restraint, unless necessary to keep you and others safe, according to the law.
Communication & Interpreter Services
- To get information in a way that you understand. Access to interpreting/ translation services is available at no charge.
- To communicate openly with your caregivers about your illness, possible treatments and likely outcomes, and ask questions about your care.
- Interpreter services are available free of charge in Spanish, American Sign Language and other languages. Call 217-588-7770. Memorial Health utilizes relay services for external telephone with TTY users. We accept and make calls through a relay service. The State of Illinois relay service number is 7–1–1.
Concerns, Complaints or Grievances
- To inform your health care team of any specific needs you have and to communicate concerns or compliments to the individuals or department involved.
- To address any complaint that cannot be resolved by the staff providing your care contact the patient experience office at:
Memorial Health
Patient Experience
340 W. Miller
Springfield, IL 62702
Contact Us
- To file a grievance with an outside organization. We honor your right to make a complaint and will not take any action against you. You may contact:
The Joint Commission
Fax: 630–792–5636 | JointCommission.org “Report a Patient Safety Event or Concern”
Mail: The Office of Quality & Patient Safety, The Joint Commission, One Renaissance Boulevard, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Illinois Department of Public Health
800–252–4343 | TTY: 800–547–0466
Web: dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/health-careregulation/complaints
Mail: 535 W. Jefferson Street, Springfield, IL 62761
Livanta LLC–Medicare Quality Improvement, Organization (QIO) for Illinois
Toll-free: 888–524–9900
TTY: 888–985–8775 | Livantaqio.com
Patient Responsibilities
While receiving care at Memorial Health, patients, their representatives and visitors have the following responsibilities:
- To know Memorial Health has zero tolerance for verbal aggression, physical assault, discrimination, harassment and all forms of racism.
- To be respectful and considerate in your interactions with other patients, visitors, caregivers, physicians and employees.
- To work together as a team with your physicians and caregivers and share responsibility for your healthcare.
- To be open and honest with your physicians and caregivers about illnesses, hospitalizations, medications and other issues related to your health, past and present.
- To cooperate with everyone who cares for you and to ask questions if you do not understand their instructions.
- To speak up and communicate your concerns to any employee as soon as possible.
- To respect the property of others and that of the facility.
- To care for your personal belongings. Please leave all nonessential items at home.
- To keep any follow-up appointments or notify your doctor if they cannot be kept.
- To be prompt in paying your bills, to provide the correct information to your insurance company and to ask any questions about the charges as soon as possible.
- To follow our policies and rules.
Medical Patient Rights of Women (Pregnancy and Childbirth)
Under Public Act 101-0445, effective Jan. 1, 2020, the Medical Patient Rights Act was amended. With regard to pregnancy and childbirth, every woman has the right to:
- Receive healthcare before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth
- Receive care for her and her infant that is consistent with generally accepted medical standards
- Choose a certified nurse midwife or physician as her maternity care professional
- Choose her birth setting from the full range of birthing options available in her community
- Leave her maternity care professional and select another if she becomes dissatisfied with her care
- Receive information about the names of those healthcare professionals involved in her care
- Privacy and confidentiality of records
- Receive information concerning her condition and proposed treatment
- Accept or refuse any treatment
- Be informed if her caregivers wish to enroll her or her infant in a research study
- Access her medical records
- Receive information in a language in which she can communicate
- Receive emotional and physical support during labor and birth
- Freedom of movement during labor and to give birth in the position of her choice
- Contact with her newborn
- Receive information about breastfeeding
- Decide collaboratively with caregivers when she and her baby will leave the birth site for home
- Be treated with respect at all times before, during and after pregnancy by her healthcare professionals
- Examine and receive a reasonable explanation of her total bill for services
Public Act 100-445. Medical Patient Rights Act, 410 ILCS 50/3.4(b) and 77 Adm. Code 250.60. https://dph.illinois.gov/topic...