Figure: 40 TAC §19.401(b)
Statement of Resident Rights
You, the resident, do not give up any rights when you enter a nursing facility. The facility must encourage and assist you to fully exercise your rights. Any violation of these rights is against the law. It is against the law for any nursing facility employee to threaten, coerce, intimidate or retaliate against you for exercising your rights.
If anyone hurts you, threatens to hurt you, neglects your care, takes your property, or violates your dignity, you have the right to file a complaint with the facility administrator or with the Texas Department of Human Services by calling 1-800-458-9858.
You have a right to:
(1) all care necessary for
you to have the highest possible level of health;
(2)
safe, decent and clean conditions;
(3) be free from
abuse and exploitation;
(4) be treated with courtesy,
consideration, and respect;
(5) be free from
discrimination based on age, race, religion, sex, nationality, or disability and
to practice your own religious beliefs;
(6) privacy,
including privacy during visits and telephone
calls;
(7) complain about the facility and to
organize or participate in any program that presents residents' concerns to the
administrator of the facility;
(8) have facility
information about you maintained as confidential;
(9)
retain the services of a physician of your choice, at your own expense or
through a health care plan, and to have a physician explain to you, in language
you understand, your complete medical condition, the recommended treatment, and
the expected results of the treatment, including reasonably expected effects,
side effects, and risks associated with psychoactive
medications;
(10) participate in developing a plan of
care, to refuse treatment, and to refuse to participate in experimental
research;
(11) a written statement or admission
agreement describing the services provided by the facility and the related
charges;
(12) manage your own finances or to delegate
that responsibility to another person;
(13) access
money and property you have deposited with the facility and to an accounting of
your money and property that are deposited with the facility and of all
financial transactions made with or on behalf of
you;
(14) keep and use personal property, secure from
theft or loss;
(15) not be relocated within the
facility, except in accordance with nursing facility
regulations;
(16) receive
visitors;
(17) receive unopened mail and to receive
assistance in reading or writing correspondence;
(18)
participate in activities inside and outside the
facility;
(19) wear your own
clothes;
(20) discharge yourself from the facility
unless you have been adjudicated mentally
incompetent;
(21) not be discharged from the
facility, except as provided in the nursing facility
regulations;
(22) be free from any physical or
chemical restraints imposed for the purposes of discipline or convenience and
not required to treat your medical symptoms;
(23)
receive information about prescribed psychoactive medication from the person who
prescribes the medication or that person's designee, to have any psychoactive
medications prescribed and administered in a responsible manner, as mandated by
the Health and Safety Code, §242.505, and to refuse to consent to the
prescription of psychoactive medications; and
(24)
place an electronic monitoring device in your room that is owned and operated by
you or provided by your guardian or legal
representative.
Your rights may be restricted only to
the extent necessary to protect you or another person from danger or harm or to
protect a right of another resident, particularly those relating to privacy and
confidentiality.