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Patient and Visitor Resources

Patient Safety & Rights

Because we believe in quality healthcare, Mount Nittany Medical Center promotes patient safety and establishes protocols and processes to avoid medical errors.

We also invest in continuing education opportunities that allow our staff to keep current with medical advances and best practices.

Medical errors are mistakes that may involve medication, surgery, tests or other components of your healthcare. While we’re committed to procedures that ensure that these are minimized, there are also many ways you can help promote your safety and minimize the chance of medical errors.

Talk to your healthcare providers. Tell them about your health. Ask them any questions you have. If you don’t understand something, ask for clarification.

If you are admitted to a medical facility, take a complete list of your medications with you and show it to your physician and your nurse. This will help them make sure that any new medications will not cause problems with ones you already take.

Tell your physician if you have any allergies and tell him or her about any problems that your medications have caused, such as a rash or stomachache.

Do not tamper with any equipment in your room. Call for a nurse if you have questions or concerns about the equipment in your room.
If you have been cautioned not to get out of bed without assistance, please follow these instructions; they are meant to help protect you from falling and possibly suffering a serious injury.

When you pick up your medication at the drugstore, make sure that it is what your physician ordered. If you have any questions about your prescription, ask the pharmacist before you leave the drug store.

Patient Rights & Responsibilities – Medical Center


As a patient at Mount Nittany Medical Center, you have significant rights and responsibilities to ensure you receive the best possible care.

At Mount Nittany Health, we fully support the rights and responsibilities of our patients as detailed by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. You can read their brochure, which outlines your patient rights and responsibilities.

This brochure outlines your rights concerning:

  • Communication
  • Making informed decisions and advance directives
  • Visitation
  • Care planning and delivery
  • Privacy and confidentiality
  • Hospital bills
  • Complaints, concerns and questions

It also addresses patient responsibilities concerning:

  • Providing information
  • Respect and consideration
  • Safety
  • Refusing care
  • Charges
  • Cooperation
  • Resolving Issues

If you have a concern or an unmet need, voicing it directly to your physician, nurse or the nurse manager of your floor, in most cases, resolves the issue quickly and effectively.

If you feel your issue requires more attention or is not resolved to your satisfaction, please contact our patient representative at 814.234.6706. You may also speak with a patient representative regarding HCAHPS or Press Ganey surveys. Staff is available Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If calling after hours, please leave a message and a representative will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you feel your issue or concern was not addressed by Mount Nittany Health, you may also contact the Pennsylvania Department of Health:

  • Pennsylvania Department of Health
    Acute and Ambulatory Care Services
    P.O. Box 90
    Harrisburg, PA 17180-0090
    800.254.5164

Patient safety concerns can also be reported to The Joint Commission:

  • At The Joint Commission’s website, using the “Report a Patient Safety Event” link in the “Action Center”
  • By mail to:
    Office of Quality and Patient Safety, The Joint Commission,
    One Renaissance Boulevard,
    Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181

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Patient Rights & Responsibilities – Practice Locations


COMPLAINTS, CONCERNS, AND QUESTIONS

You and your family/guardian have the right to:

  • Tell facility staff about your concerns or complaints regarding your care. This will not affect your future care.
  • Seek review of quality of care concerns, insurance coverage decisions, and concerns about your appointment.
  • Expect a timely response to your complaint or grievance from the facility. Complaints or grievances may be made in writing, by phone, or in person. The facility has a duty to respond to these complaints or grievances in a manner that you can understand. To share your concerns with the facility, please contact the Quality & Patient Safety department:

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

As a patient, family member, or guardian, you have the right to know all facility rules and what we expect of you during your facility visit. Here is what we look for from you:

PROVIDE INFORMATION

As a patient, family member, or guardian, we ask that you:

  • Provide accurate and complete information about current health care problems, past illnesses, medications, and other matters relating to your health.
  • Report any condition that puts you at risk (for example, allergies or hearing problems).
  • Report changes in your condition to the health care professionals taking care of you.
  • Provide a copy of your Advance Directive, Living Will, Durable Power of Attorney for health care, and any organ/tissue donation permissions to the health care professionals taking care of you.

RESPECT AND CONSIDERATION

As a patient, family member, or guardian, we ask that you:

  • Recognize and respect the rights of other patients, families, and staff. Threats, violence, or harassment of other patients and facility staff will not be tolerated.
  • Comply with the facility’s no smoking policy.
  • Refrain from conducting any illegal activity on facility property. If such activity occurs, the facility will report it to the police.

SAFETY

As a patient, family member, or guardian, we ask that you:

  • Promote your own safety by becoming an active, involved, and informed member of your health care team.
  • Ask questions if you are concerned about your health or safety.
  • Remind staff to check your identification before medications and vaccines are given, blood samples are taken, or before any procedure.
  • Remind caregivers to wash their hands before taking care of you.
  • Be informed about which medications you are taking and why you are taking them.
  • Ask all facility staff to identify themselves.

REFUSING CARE

As a patient:

  • You are responsible for your actions if you refuse care or do not follow care instructions.

CHARGES

As a patient:

  • You are responsible for paying for the health care that you received as promptly as possible.

COOPERATION

As a patient:

  • Please try to follow the care plan agreed upon with the health care professionals caring for you. Please let us know if you do not think that you will be able to follow the plan at home, and we will revise the plan with you.

If you do not speak English, language assistance services, free of charge, are available to you. Please ask an employee for assistance.

Mount Nittany Health complies with applicable civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of any federally or state protected status. As our patient, you have the right to safe, respectful, and dignified care at all times. You will receive services and care that are medically suggested and within the facility’s scope, its stated mission, and required law and regulation.

COMMUNICATION

You have the right to:

  • Have a family member, or another person that you choose, to participate in your care and have access to your medical information.
  • Receive information in a way that you understand. This includes interpretation and translation, free of charge, in the language you prefer for talking about your health care. This also includes providing you with needed help if you have vision, speech, hearing, or cognitive impairments.
  • Designate a support person, if needed, to act on your behalf to assert and protect your patient rights.

INFORMED DECISIONS

You have the right to:

  • Receive information about your current health, care, outcomes, recovery, ongoing health care needs, and future health status in terms that you understand.
  • Be informed about proposed care options including the risks and benefits, other care options, what could happen without care, and the outcome(s) of any medical care provided, including any outcomes that were not expected.
  • Be involved in all aspects of your care and to take part in decisions about your care.
  • Make choices about your care based on your own spiritual and personal values.
  • Request care. This right does not mean you can demand care or services that are not medically needed.
  • Refuse any care, therapy, drug, or procedure against the medical advice of a doctor. There may be times that care must be provided based on the law.
  • Expect the facility to get your permission before taking photos, recording, or filming you, if the purpose is for something other than patient identification, care, diagnosis, or therapy.
  • Decide to take part or not take part in research or clinical trials for your condition, or donor programs, that may be suggested by your doctor. Your participation in such care is voluntary, and written permission must be obtained from you or your legal representative before you participate. A decision to not take part in research or clinical trials will not affect your right to receive care.

ADVANCE DIRECTIVES

You have the right to:

  • Create advance directives, which are legal papers that allow you to decide now what you want to happen if you are no longer healthy enough to make decisions about your care. You have the right to have facility staff comply with these directives.
  • Ask about and discuss the ethics of your care, including resolving any conflicts that might arise such as, deciding against, withholding, or withdrawing life-sustaining care.

CARE PLANNING

You have the right to:

  • Receive a medical screening exam to determine treatment.
  • Participate in the care that you receive in the facility.
  • Receive instructions on follow-up care and participate in decisions about your plan of care.

CARE DELIVERY

You have the right to:

  • Expect emergency procedures to be implemented without unnecessary delay.
  • Receive care in a safe setting free from any form of abuse, harassment, and neglect.
  • Receive kind, respectful, safe, quality care delivered by skilled staff.
  • Know the names of doctors and nurses providing care to you and the names and roles of other health care workers and staff that are caring for you.
  • Receive assistance in obtaining a consultation by another health care provider at your request and expense.
  • Receive proper assessment and management of pain, including the right to request or reject any or all options to relieve pain.
  • Receive efficient and quality care with high professional standards that are continually maintained and reviewed.
  • Expect good management techniques to be implemented within this facility considering effective use of your time and to avoid your personal discomfort.

PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

You have the right to:

  • Be interviewed, examined, and discuss your care in places designed to protect your privacy.
  • Be advised why certain people are present and to ask others to leave during sensitive talks or procedures.
  • Expect all communications and records related to care, including
    who is paying for your care, to be treated as confidential except as otherwise provided by law or third-party contractual arrangements.
  • Receive written notice that explains how your personal health information will be used and shared with other health care professionals involved in your care.
  • Review and request copies of your medical record unless restricted for medical or legal reasons.

FACILITY BILLS

You have the right to:

  • Review, obtain, request, and receive a detailed explanation of your facility charges and bills.
  • Receive information and counseling on ways to help pay for the facility bill.
  • Request information about any business or financial
    arrangements that may impact your care.

Please feel free to ask questions about any of these rights that you do not understand. If you have questions about these rights, please discuss them with your doctor or care team.

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