Healthcare Rights
The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights is from the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare and is supported by the Office of the Health Ombudsman Queensland.
The charter outlines seven fundamental rights:
- Access: You have a right to adequate and timely healthcare
- Safety: You have a right to safe and high quality healthcare
- Respect: You are entitled to receive care in a way that is respectful to your culture, beliefs, values and characteristics (age and gender)
- Communication: The right to be informed about services, treatment, options and costs in a clear and open way
- Participation: You have a right to be included in decisions and choices about your care
- Privacy: Your health information is confidential and you have the right for it to be generally seen only by you and health services involved in your care.
- Comment: You have a right to voice your opinion on your care and have and concerns addressed.
Healthcare Information
E-Health Records – allow your doctors, nurses and healthcare team to document and access your medical information (such as who you are, reason for admission, medical history and any allergies) on computers instead of using paper file
Benefits of e-health records include:
- faster access for clinicians to accurate medical information
- a reduction in errors and less variation in care processes
- progressing treatments more efficiently so patients can get home sooner
- staff able to spend more time providing patient care and less time chasing paper charts.
E- Health records are sometimes also referred to as Integrated electronic medical records or (ieMR). They are currently available at varying levels of capability at six Queensland hospitals:
- Princess Alexandra Hospital (Australia’s first large scale public digital hospital)
- Cairns Hospital (Queensland’s first regional public digital hospital)
- Mackay Base Hospital
- The Townsville Hospital
- Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital
- Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
Continnued development through to the year 2020 will see these other hospitals below also able to offer E-health records:
- Princess Alexandra Hospital
- Logan Hospital
- Beaudesert Hospital
- Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital
- QEII Hospital
- Redland Hospital
- Wynnum Community Health Centre
- Townsville Hospital
- Cairns Hospital
- Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
- Sunshine Coast University Hospital
- Nambour General Hospital
- Ipswich Hospital
- Toowoomba Hospital
- Gold Coast University Hospital
- Robina Hospital
- Bundaberg Hospital
- Caboolture Hospital
- Hervey Bay Hospital
- Longreach Hospital
- Mount Isa Hospital
- Redcliffe Hospital
- Rockhampton Hospital
- Roma Hospital
- The Prince Charles Hospital
- Thursday Island Hospital
- Toowoomba Hospital
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Confidentiality – Your health information is confidential and you have the right for it to be generally seen only by you and health services involved in your care.
Informed Consent – Before a doctor, nurse or any healthcare practitioner can examine or treat you, they usually need your consent or permission. It is important that you are provided with sufficient information so that you understand the proposed treatment or procedure.