About Your Stay
Choices About Your Care
The Patient Rights and Responsibilities page gives you very specific details regarding your care and your role in your care.
In addition to your rights and responsibilities, UC Davis Medical Center encourages patients and their families to be aware of the following:
Advance care planning
Advance care planning is making decisions about the care you would want to receive if you become unable to speak for yourself. Advanced care planning helps make sure that your treatment preferences as a patient are documented, regularly updated, and respected.
There are two documents used to record these preferences:
- Advance health care directives
- Physicians Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms
If you already have an advance health care directive, with or without a POLST form, please provide your medical team with a copy.
If you can’t provide us with a copy, we can help you create a new document while you are here. There is more information on this advance care planning page. You can also ask your bedside nurse for further information.
It’s good to discuss advance directives with your family, doctors, nurses and cleric while you are alert and feeling well.
Policy statement
All of us at UC Davis Health want you to understand your rights to make medical treatment decisions. UC Davis Health complies with California laws and court decisions on advance directives. We do not condition care provided or otherwise discriminate against anyone based on whether or not an advance directive has been written. We have formal policies to ensure that your wishes about treatment will be followed.
If you have already prepared an advance directive, or should you choose to do so in the future, your responsibility is to provide a copy of it to the hospital so that it can be kept with our records.
If you have questions about advance directives, you may contact one of the following UC Davis Health departments:
Clinical Social Services (24 hours):
Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. – 916-734-2583
After 5 p.m., weekends and holidays – 916-762-5585 (pager)
Patient/Guest Assistance:
Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. – 916-734-5527
Clinical research opportunities
Individuals today enjoy longer, healthier lives than ever before because of knowledge gained through clinical research conducted at university hospitals like UC Davis.
Clinical research conducted at UC Davis is reviewed by three Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). These are campus-wide committees of physicians, nurses, scientists and people from the local community. The committees are established to protect the rights and welfare of research participants. Each IRB carefully reviews research studies before they are made available to patients and others.
You may have the opportunity to participate in some of our clinical research. It is up to you. Participation is voluntary and does not affect the quality of your care in any way.
If you decide to participate, our medical/research staff will fully explain the purposes and procedures. You may also be required to sign an informed consent form. You may withdraw from the research study at any time.
Bioethical consults
Bioethicists evaluate the ethical implications of patient care. UC Davis has a Bioethics Consultation Committee available to assist your medical team if bioethical questions arise during the course of your care.
Please talk with your medical team if you think an ethical problem has arisen. You also may contact a member of the committee directly by calling the hospital telephone operator.
Notice of Privacy Practices
Your privacy is important to us. UC Davis Health has a notice that describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed, and how you can get access to this information.
To view a copy of our Notice of Privacy Practices, please ask at the registration desk or visit the medical center’s Privacy Practices and Information web page.
Patient and Visitor Pledge
In this time of high demand for our services, we pledge to provide the best care that we can. Our patients and visitors can pledge to help by following our patient and visitor partnership pledge.