(1) The hospice must ensure that patients and their families receive hospice care and palliative care for persons with advanced and progressive diseases, when offered, in a manner that respects and protects their dignity and ensures all patients' rights to:
(a) Participate in the hospice voluntarily and sever the relationship with the hospice at any time;
(b) Receive only the care and services to which the patient and/or the patient's family have consented;
(c) Receive care in a setting and manner that preserves the patient's dignity, privacy, and safety to the maximum extent possible;
(d) Receive hospice care in a manner that neither physically nor emotionally abuses the patient, nor neglects the patient's needs;
(e) Receive care free from unnecessary use of restraints;
(f) Receive education in the availability and use of the hospice's grievance process for all patients;
(g) Communicate grievances, concerns or complaints to the hospice for prompt resolution;
(h) Refuse any specific treatment from the hospice without severing the relationship with the hospice;
(i) Choose their own private attending physician, so long as the physician agrees to abide by the policies and procedures of the hospice;
(j) Exercise the religious beliefs and generally recognized customs of their choice, not in conflict with health and safety standards, during the course of their hospice treatment and exclude religion from their treatment if they so choose;
(k) Have their family unit, legal guardian, if any, and their patient representative present any time during an inpatient stay, unless the presence of the family unit, legal guardian, if any, or patient representative poses a risk to the patient or others;
(l) Participate in the development of the patient's plan of care and any changes to that plan;
(m) Have maintained as confidential any medical or personal information about the patient;
(n) Continue hospice care and not be discharged from the hospice during periods of coordinated or approved appropriate hospital admissions;
(o) Be provided with a description of the hospice care provided and levels of care to which the patient is entitled depending upon whether the patient is terminally ill or suffering from an advanced and progressive disease, and any charges associated with such services;
(p) Review, upon request, copies of any inspection report completed by the Department within the two years preceding the request;
(q) Make self-determinations concerning medical care, which encompass the right to make choices regarding life-sustaining treatment, including resuscitative services;
(r) Continue to receive appropriate hospice care when terminally ill without regard for the ability to pay for such care; and
(s) Have communication of information provided in a method that is effective for the patient. If the hospice cannot provide communications in a method that is effective for the patient, attempts to provide such shall be documented in the patient's medical record.
(2) The hospice must provide to the patient, the patient's representative, and/or the patient's legal guardian oral and written explanations of the rights of the patient and the patient's family unit while receiving hospice care for the terminally ill and palliative care for persons with advanced and progressive diseases. The explanation of rights must be provided at the time of admission into the hospice.
(3) At the time of admission, the hospice must provide to the patient, the patient's representative, and the patient's legal guardian the contact information, including the website address of the Department, for reporting complaints about hospice care to the Department.
(4) The hospice shall post the following information in a public area at the facility:
(a) A copy of the patient rights as outlined in Rule 111-8-37-.10(1) in a public area at the facility; and
(b) Contact information, including the website address of the Department, for reporting complaints about hospice care to the Department.
O.C.G.A. §§
31-7-170et seq.
