Patient rights – treatment at Filadelfia

Your rights as a patient

Patient rights are legal rights. Filadelfia is legally obligated to respect your rights. Patient rights ensure that you get the most optimal treatment (both medically and as a person) when you are referred to examination or treatment in a hospital.

What are your rights as a patient ?

We have collected the patient rights that are relevant to your medical treatment at Filadelfia.

At the bottom of this page, you will find links and website addresses with more information about patient rights and the possibilities that are available to you in the health system. You will also find information about wills and testaments, the use of restraints/counter-violence in psychiatric treatment and rehabilitation.

Referral to Filadelfia Epilepsy Hospital

The Epilepsy Hospital is included in the provisions regarding the patient’s right to a choice of hospital. As a patient you have access to examinations and treatment at the Epilepsy Hospital, when a formal medical referral has been issued by a neurological department, a paediatric department or by a private specialised medical practitioner (neurology or paediatrics). General physicians (GPs) are also authorised to refer patients to the Epilepsy Hospital. For more information: Brochure from the Ministry of Health and the Elderly.

Contacts on staff

A contact doctor will be assigned to you, when you are admitted to the Epilepsy Hospital – you will also have a contact nurse when you are in one of our outpatient programmes. If necessary, you will have two health professionals assigned to you as contacts, in addition to your contact doctor. Your treatment will be planned and carried out by your contacts, in close collaboration with you.

Compensation for travel expenses

You can apply for compensation for travel expenses by contacting the travelling/transport office in your region. The regional travel/transport department will determine whether you are entitled to compensation for travel expenses incurred in connection with your admission, discharge and outpatient follow-ups at the Epilepsy Hospital.

Use of an interpreter

You are entitled to request the presence of an interpreter, if this is deemed necessary to carry out your treatment programme.

Your right to information

You have a right to be informed about treatment options, the expected results of your treatment and possible/potential complications and side effects. The hospital is under an obligation to inform you of the consequences of not having the suggested treatment. You are, however, entitled to request that the doctor omits certain formerly specified information, in the event that you do not wish to possess such information.

Your right to decide

You decide whether an examination or treatment should be started. You are entitled to new information and must give your formal consent, if the treatment that has been started is to be adjusted/changed. The right to decide applies to all patients from the age of 15 – provided that they are medically capable of making such decisions. If you are not able to formally consent to treatment, someone will be appointed to make the decision for you. Normally, such a person will be one of your closest relatives or a legal guardian. In life-threatening situations in which you are incapable of making a decision/consenting to the treatment, a doctor is entitled to take immediate medical action without prior consent from you.

Who receives information about my illness/disease ?

The staff (both medical and nursing) are bound by professional confidentiality – also in relation to your closest relatives. You decide if the staff can discuss your case and/or treatment with one or more of your relatives – and, if you give them permission, you decide with whom they are entitled to share such information. If you lose the ability to protect your own interests, the staff may cooperate with your assigned relative(s) or a legal guardian. When you are discharged – and after outpatient appointments – your GP will receive information regarding the treatment that you have received. If you do not wish for your GP to be informed about your treatment and/or results of your treatment, you must inform the staff of this. Apart from the rules just mentioned, no information regarding your health and/or treatment will be discussed or presented to anyone (including relatives, employers etc .)for other purposes than what is directly connected to your treatment, unless you give us your explicit consent to do so. Public authorities are, however, entitled to request information concerning you from the hospital without your consent.

Electronic health records (E-journal)

From the summer of 2010, some of the information in your medical health records has been available electronically via www.sundhed.dk. To access your electronic health records you must have turned 15 and have access to the Danish common electronic log-in system with a personal user ID, password and code card (NemID). You will have read-only access – this means that you will not be able to write/change anything in the electronic health records. The electronic health records (E-journal) is a national electronic health record system through which medical professionals can access information regarding your health and treatment that is necessary for them to have in relation to treatment programmes that they are planning for you. If you do not wish for health professionals to be able to access this information, you must inform the Epilepsy Hospital of this.

Right to access of personal data: right to seeing and reading all information registered in your medical records

All citizens from the age of 15 are entitled to getting access to their medical health records to view the information that has been registered. Inform your contact person about your wish to view your medical health records. You are entitled to a response regarding your request within 10 days. In some very rare cases, a request may be denied, in part or in full, on the grounds that the information would be detrimental to you and/or your situation – access to medical health records can only be denied based on professional/medical consideration for the patient.

Complaints/claims and compensation/damages

Quality ranks among the top areas of focus at Filadelfia Epilepsy Hospital – both as regards treatment and services. If you wish to lodge a formal complaint, your complaint must be sent to the correct authority:

  • The hospital’s Board of Managers and/or Board of Directors: Complaints regarding Filadelfia’s services (the service level; the tone adopted by Filadelfia staff; the physical facilities or the food)
  • The Danish Patient Safety Authority (via: www.patientombuddet.dk): Complaints regarding patient treatment (examination; care and/or treatment; the information registered in your health records; insufficient information or infringement of other patient rights)

You can issue a claim for damages/compensation via the Danish Patient Compensation Association if you have suffered injury in connection with an examination or treatment. Go to www.patienterstatningen.dk for more information about injury suffered in connection with medical treatment. You can also download a complaints form that you must fill out and send to the address indicated on the form.

Research at the Epilepsy Hospital

If you are asked to participate in a research project, you must first be properly informed about the project – both in person (by a relevant health professional) and in writing. Participation in medical research projects requires your prior explicit written consent. You are entitled to revoke your consent at any point during the research period. If you do not wish to participate in a given research project, your decision will not in any way affect the treatment that you will receive at the hospital.

Searching for information in electronic systems

Access to the electronic systems that we use to register personal and sensitive information about our patients is restricted to the medical practitioners that might be involved in (parts of) your treatment at the Epilepsy Hospital. Medical practitioners that will have access to your health records include:

  • Doctors
  • Nurses
  • Social and healthcare assistants/social and healthcare workers
  • Nurse assistants
  • Molecular biologists
  • Deacons
  • Psychologists
  • Clinical dieticians
  • Physiotherapists, occupational therapists and music therapists
  • Medical secretaries
  • Medical social workers
  • Logopaedics  (speech and language therapists)
  • Neurophysiologists/neurophysiology assistants
  • Social workers
  • Medical students