Dear Editor,
We read the article titled, “Patient's Bill of Rights: Is it a Challenge for Quality Health Care in Saudi Arabia?” with great interest.[1] Mahrous concluded that “This study shows that in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia, there is a low level of awareness among patients admitted to hospitals regarding their rights.”[1] We would like to share ideas and experience on this topic. Patients' awareness on their rights is usually low in developing countries. In our setting, according to the local accreditation guideline, information regarding patients' rights should be clearly demonstrated in all areas of the medical center.[2,3] In addition, this information must also be displayed in all outpatient department areas. However, patients may not necessarily pay attention and carefully read the information provided. Therefore, to mitigate this problem, regardless of patients' awareness of their rights, medical personnel should consider it their responsibility to follow the ethical guidelines in professional practice on patients.[4]
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REFERENCES
- 1.Mahrous MS. Patient's bill of rights: Is it a challenge for quality health care in Saudi Arabia? Saudi J Med Med Sci. 2017;5:254–9. doi: 10.4103/sjmms.sjmms_147_16. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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