PATIENT' S AWARENESS ABOUT PATIENT RIGHTS

Objectives: To assess the level of awareness of patients’ rights from the patient’s point of view.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 admitted patients at Mayo Hospital Lahore from 1 January to March 2019. Data was collected using a self-structured questionnaire that evaluated their awareness regarding patient’s right. Discussion: The awareness regarding the patient rights, associated factors and their utilization by the health care professionals was evaluated by a mean knowledge score. Results: About 86.0% of patients had no idea about the existence of any patient rights charter. The mean knowledge score of patient rights in this study was 9.2 ± 2.8 out of 14. Level of education influenced the knowledge score. The majority (92.0%) of respondents stated that the healthcare professionals did not informed them about the available treatment modalities. Conclusions: Majority of the patients lacked adequate awareness regarding their rights. Health care professionals ought to be more sensitive to practice knowledge sharing between the patients and the attendants so that coherent decision making can be designed regarding the management plan.

Key words: patient rights, awareness, knowledge score.