Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

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A review of the history of the Patient’s Bill of Rights reveals the universal significance of this subject in health systems management. There is a long history of attempts to raise respect for patient’s rights and setting the legal frameworks associated with those rights in the health care of many countries. The present study aimed to evaluate observance of the Patient’s Bill of Rights according to patients in the teaching hospitals of the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 2009 in all 4 teaching hospitals of the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences on 200 patients who were either hospitalized or about to be discharged at the time. Data were collected through interviews, using a fifteen-item Likert type questionnaire based on the Patient’s Bill of Rights, and its validity and reliability had been confirmed. Data analysis was performed through ANOVAs and t-tests, using SPSS version 17 software. The results showed that according to the population under study, the patients’ rights were respected in 14.59% of the cases based on the overall score of the Patient’s Bill of Rights. This figure was 16.63% for respect for patients, their privacy and, patient non-discrimination, 14.17% for patient information availability right, 14.15% for the right to make choices and decisions freely, and 13.20% regarding complaints. There was no meaningful relationship between patients’ views on observance of their rights and their sex (P = 0.106), education level (P = 0.723), marital status (P =0.260) and place of residence (P = 0.101). Based on the findings of this study, observance of the Patient’s Bill of Rights was not satisfactory according to the population under study and from their viewpoint. It is therefore recommended that measures be taken to eliminate any obstacles preventing observance of patients’ rights and to improve the present conditions of hospitals in this respect.

Keywords: patient’s right charter, teaching hospitals, patients’ views

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