Patient Rights & Privacy

As a patient you have the right to courteous, respectful and confidential treatment.

Notice of privacy practices

See the Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center Notice of Privacy Practices (PDF).

Your rights as a patient at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center

We strive to preserve your rights as an individual. We also ask that you and your visitors be considerate of the rights of others.

You have the right to:

  • Receive considerate and respectful care at all times and under all circumstances with recognition of your personal dignity.
  • Have an attending physician who is responsible for coordinating your care.
  • Obtain, from the physician coordinating your care, complete and current information concerning diagnosis treatment, and any known prognosis in terms you and/or your support person can reasonably understand.
  • Receive information from your physician that is necessary to give informed consent prior to the start of any procedure or treatment, or both, unless it is an emergency. You also have a right to know if any medically significant alternatives for care or treatment exist.
  • Refuse treatment to the extent permitted by law and to be informed of the medical consequences of refusing treatment.
  • Respect for your privacy, including the right to have a person of your own sex present during certain parts of examination, treatment, or procedure performed by a provider of the opposite sex and the right not to remain disrobed any longer than is required. You have the right to wear your own clothes except when they interfere with your medical care.
  • Expect that you will have access to our resources. Your rights include, if physically possible, a transfer to another room or place if another person in that room or place is disturbing you by unreasonable actions. When medically permissible you may be transferred to another facility only after receiving complete information and explanation concerning the needs for, and alternatives to, such a transfer.
  • Expect that all communications and records pertaining to your care shall be treated as confidential unless you give us permission or is otherwise permitted by law.
  • Know if any part of your care would involve research. You can always refuse to participate in research.
  • Expect reasonable continuity of care, and the right to be informed by your attending physician of continuing health requirements following discharge.
  • Know the names of the people that are providing your care and what they do. This includes your right to know of the existence of any professional relationship among individuals who are treating you, as well as the relationship to any other health care or educational institutions involved in your care.
  • Receive an understandable and specific hospital bill.
  • Know what hospital rules and regulations apply to your conduct as a patient.
  • Whenever possible, guardians or parents have the right to stay with their children 24 hours per day. Whenever possible, visitors identified by patients may stay with terminally ill patients 24 hours a day.
  • Have an interpreter if a language barrier or hearing impairment presents a continuing problem to your understanding of the care and treatment being provided.
  • Receive professional assessment of pain and professional pain management.
  • Be informed in writing of the availability of hospice services and the eligibility criteria for those services.
  • Know the number of nursing staff working on your unit and the number of patients.

Vermont Patient’s Bill of Rights for Palliative Care & Pain Management

Vermont law includes specific rights for patients with terminal illness, pain and chronic conditions to make informed decisions.

Your rights include the right to:

  • Be informed of all evidence-based options for care and treatment, including palliative care, in order to make a fully informed choice.
  • Be informed of all available options related to terminal care if you have a terminal illness; and to be able to request any, all, or none of these options; and to expect and receive supportive care for the specific option or options available.
  • Request or reject the use of any or all treatments in order to relieve your pain.
  • Receive competent and compassionate medical assistance in managing your physical and emotional symptoms if you have a chronic condition.
  • A pediatric patient with a serious or life-limiting illness or condition has the right to receive palliative care while seeking and undergoing potentially curative treatment.

If you have complaints about your stay, please contact the Quality Department at (802) 674-7248.

As an alternative or in addition, you may contact the following entities regarding complaints:

Vermont Board of Medical Practice
108 Cherry Street, P.O. Box 70 Burlington, VT 05402-0070
(802) 657-4220 or toll-free (800)745-7371

Vermont Department of Health
108 Cherry Street, P.O. Box 70 Burlington, VT 05402-0070
Toll-free (800) 464-4343

Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging & Independent Living
Division of Licensing & Protection
HC 2 South, 280 State Drive, Waterbury, VT 05671-2060
(802) 241-0480 or fax (802) 241-3043