Health, Spirituality and Medical Ethics

Background and Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the observance rate of patient charter of rights from the perspective of patients admitted to Shahid Dr Beheshti research and treatment training center affiliated to Qom University of Medical Sciences in an effort to enhance and promote medical care, defend patients' rights and ensure adequate medical and health care. Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted on 467 patients in the year 2014. The data were collected using a Likert scale questionnaire with 28 questions whose validity and reliability had been tested and approved in previous studies. Data analysis was performed using T-test analysis of variance via SPSS software Ver. 19. Results: The results obtained from this research indicated that the patient charter of rights was observed based on the overall score of patient charter of rights in 64.62% of cases. Patient rights was observed to be 71.00 % in the category of “optimal receipt of information,”, “patient privacy,” 71 .52 %, “optimal receipt of health services,” 71.44 %, and access to complaints handling system, 44.53 %. Conclusion: According to the findings, the patient charter of rights has been observed satisfactorily according to the admitted patients in the statistical population under investigation, yet it has not been desirable regarding access to the complaint handling system, thus it is suggested that necessary measures be conducted to expand patients and service recipients’ access to complaint handling system.