FILE A COMPLAINT

Our goal at College Medical Center Phoenix is to provide you excellent healthcare with dignity and respect.

If you have any concerns, complaints, suggestions, or compliments, please e-mail customerservice@cmcphoenix.com

You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.

If you wish to file a complaint with an external regulatory agency please contact:

CIHQ Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality

Online:

https://cihq.org/complaint

Mail:

Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality

P.O. Box 1540

Mexia, TX 76667

Phone:

(512) 661-2813

CONCERNS

College Medical Center Phoenix takes pride in ensuring quality patient care in a safe environment.

We are also committed to ethical business practices.

Whether you are a patient, visitor, employee, community or business partner,

if you have a concern regarding the hospital’s commitment to compliance with law,

regulation, standards or ethics, please let us know. Call our compliance hotline at 562-997-2420

You may call anonymously and without fear of retaliation.

College Medical Center Phoenix has a strictly enforced policy of non-retaliation.

Visiting Guidelines

 

 

 

Caring for you even after you have left our care

During your stay, your doctor and the staff will work with you to plan for your discharge.

Although we do everything we can to make your stay as comfortable as we can here at CMCP, we realize that there is simply no place like home.

And at home is where the next phase of the healing process begins.

DISCHARGE PLANNING

Our Case Managers can provide you with information about home health care, post-acute facilities, transportation, Meals-on-Wheels and other community resources.

We also offer assistance regarding Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, State Disability and Worker’s Compensation.

GOING HOME

When you are ready to leave the hospital, your doctor will write your discharge orders. Please make sure you understand your discharge instructions. Call your family or a friend ahead of time to arrange for a ride home or ask you nurse for assistance in arranging transportation.

Please check your rooms carefully before you leave to be sure you have all of your personal belongings.

Also, be sure you understand your doctor’s instructions. If you have any questions, please ask your nurse.

Your nurse will assist you in gathering your belongings and check to make sure you return home with all items that you had upon arrival to the hospital, including any valuables that you may have in the hospital safe. You will then be escorted directly to your car.

TRANSPORTATION

In order to make sure you are discharged in a timely manner, please be sure to arrange transportation ahead of time or ask your nurse for assistance.

Your Rights and Responsibilities

Your Rights and Responsibilities

A Shared Vision for your healthcare

Our primary concern is your health while in our care. To make sure we provide you the best care possible, we need your assistance.

Our doctors and nurses can only do their best for you when you provide as much information as you can about your health and condition.

CMCP considers you a partner in your own healthcare.

PROVISION OF INFORMATION

A patient has the responsibility to provide, to the best of his or her knowledge, accurate and complete information about present complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medication and other matters relating to her or her health.

A patient has the responsibility to report unexpected changes in his or her condition to the responsible practitioner.

A patient is responsible for reporting whether he or she clearly comprehends a contemplated course of action and what is expected of him or her.

COMPLIANCE WITH INSTRUCTIONS

A patient is responsible for following the treatment plan recommended by the practitioner primarily responsible for his or her care. This may include following the instructions of nurses and other health personnel as they carry out the coordinated plan of care and implement the responsible practitioner’s orders and as they enforce the applicable hospital rules and regulations.

The patient is responsible for keeping appointments and notifying their responsible practitioner or the hospital when unable to do so for any reason.

REFUSAL OF TREATMENT

The patient is responsible for his or her actions if he or she refuses treatment or does not follow the practitioner’s instructions.

HOSPITAL CHARGES

The patient is responsible for assuring that the financial obligations of his or her health care are fulfilled as promptly as possible.

YOUR RIGHTS

College Medical Center Phoenix considers you a partner in your health care.

When you are well informed, participate in treatment decisions, and communicate openly with your doctor, you help make your care as effective as possible. You have the right to:

• Considerate and respectful care, and to be made comfortable. You have the right to respect for your personal values and beliefs.
• Have a family member (or other representative of your choosing) and your own physician notified promptly of your admission to the hospital.
• Know the name of the physician who has primary responsibility for coordinating your care and the names and professional relationships of the other physicians and non-physicians who will see you.
• Receive information about your health status, course of treatment, prospects for recovery and outcomes of care (including unanticipated outcomes) in terms you can understand. You have the right to participate in the development and implementation of your plan of care. You have the right to participate in ethical questions that arise in the course of your care, including issues of conflict resolution, withholding resuscitative services, and forgoing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.
• Make decisions regarding medical care and receive as much information about any proposed treatment or procedure as you may need in order to five informed consent or to refuse a course of treatment. Except in emergencies, this information shall include a description of the procedure or treatment, the medically significant risks involved, alternate courses of treatment or non-treatment and the risks involved in each, and the name of the person who will carry out the procedure or treatment.
• Request or refuse treatment, the extent permitted by law. However, you do not have the right to demand inappropriate or medically unnecessary treatment or services. You have the right to leave the hospital even against the advice of physicians, to the extent permitted by law.
• Be advised if the hospital or personal physician proposes to engage in or perform human experimentation affecting your care or treatment. You have the right to refuse to participate in such research projects.
• Reasonable responses to any reasonable requests made for service.
• Appropriate assessment and management of your pain, information about pain, pain relief measures and to participate in pain management decisions. You may request or reject the use of any or all modalities to relieve pain, including opiate medication, if you suffer from server chronic intractable pain. The doctor may refuse to prescribe the opiate medication, but if so, must inform you that there are physicians who specialize in the treatment of sever chronic intractable pain with methods that include the use of opiates.
• Formulate advance directives. This includes designation a decision maker if you become incapable of understanding a proposed treatment or become unable to communicate your wishes regarding care. Hospital staff and practitioners who provide care in the hospital shall comply with these directives. All patients’ rights apply to the person who has legal responsibility to make decisions regarding medical care on your behalf.
• Have personal privacy respected. Case discussion, consultation, examination and treatment are confidential and should be conducted discreetly. You have the right to be told the reason for the presence of any individual. You have the right to have visitors leave prior to an examination and when treatment issues are being discussed. Privacy curtains will be used in semi-private rooms.
• Confidential treatment of all communications and records pertaining to your care and stay in the hospital. Basic information may be released to the public, unless specifically prohibited in writing by you. Written permission shall be obtained before medical records are made available to anyone not directly concerned with your care, except as otherwise may be required or permitted by law.
• Access information contained in your records within a reasonable time frame, except in certain circumstances specified by law.
• Receive care in a safe setting, free from verbal or physical abuse or harassment. You have the right to access protective services including notifying government agencies of neglect or abuse.
• Be free from restraints and seclusion of any form used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
• Reasonable continuity of care and to know in advance, the time and location of appointments, as well as the identity of the persons providing the care.
• Be informed by the physician, or a delegate of the physician, of continuing health care requirements following discharge from the hospital. Upon your request, a friend or family member may be provided with this information also.
• Know which hospital rules and policies apply to your conduct while a patient.
• Designate visitors of your choosing, if you have decision-making capacity, whether the visitor is related by blood or marriage, unless:
1. No visitors are allowed.
2. The facility reasonably determines that the presence of a particular visitor would endanger the health or safety of a patient, a member of the health facility staff or other visitor to the health facility or would significantly disrupt the operations of the facility.

• Have your wishes considered, if you lack decision-making capacity, for the purposes of determining who may visit. The method of that consideration will be disclosed in the hospital policy on visitation. At a minimum, the hospital shall include any persons living in your household.
• Examine and receive an explanation of the hospital’s bill regardless of the source of payment.
• Exercise these rights without regard to sex, economic status, educational background, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation or marital status or the source of payment for care.

• The Grievance Committee will review each grievance and provide you with a written response within 5 days. The written response will contain the name of a person to contact at the hospital, the steps taken to investigate the grievance, the results of the grievance process, and the date of completion of the grievance process. Concerns regarding quality of care or premature discharge will also be referred to the appropriate Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Committee.

To file a complaint with the state Department of Health Services, regardless of whether you use the hospital’s grievance process, can be completed by contacting the Arizona Department of Health Services as follows:

 Arizona Department of Health Services 150 North 18^th Avenue Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Phone: (602) 542-1025

Fax: (602) 542-0883

You may also file a complaint on line at https://app3.azdhs.gov/PROD-AZHSComplaint-UI

Patient Safety

Your Safety

Always a primary concern here at CMCP

Your safety as a patient or visitor is always a great concern to our staff.

We go to great lengths to make sure that our hospital is a place where you and your family can feel safe and secure while in our care.

Our campus is monitored 24 hours a day by our on-site security department.

 

MEDICATION SAFETY

Please give your nurse a list of names, dosage and how often you take all your current medications including prescription drugs, herbal medicine, over the counter and vitamins.

All medications you may have brought with you, including aspirin or Tylenol, should be returned home, as they can interfere or interact with tests or medicines ordered for you in the hospital. Your nurse will bring your medication and drug information to you as ordered by the physician.

Also, if you have any drug or food allergy, please inform your nurse or physician.

Your are encouraged to discuss questions regarding your medication treatment.

CONSENT

You may be asked to sign consent forms for certain types of treatment, tests, and or procedures. Your physician will have explained these tests or procedures. If you do not understand the procedure or test, you are asked to consent to, tell your nurse and your doctor will be notified.

It is important for you to understand the risks, benefits and alternatives available to you whenever you are undergoing anything other than a minor test or treatment.