IST 605: New to Navigating Healthcare

What are patient's rights?

Every person has rights when getting any kind of medical treatment. These rights include things like consent, privacy, respect, access to your own records, and more (Know your rights, 2024; TrainingABC, 2017). Knowing your rights and/or how to get help exercising your rights will help you to advocate for yourself when seeking healthcare.

Statements & Fact Sheets

United States. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Office of Recovery, issuing body. (2024). Know your rights. [Fact sheet]. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Recovery. https://permanent.fdlp.gov/gpo234311/know-your-rights-pep24-08-002.pdf 

This detailed fact sheet provides a detailed explanation of patient’s rights regarding mental health care and substance use services. It also provides step-by-step instructions on what actions to take if rights are being ignored or violated. Phone numbers for relevant resources are provided if rights are violated. This resource is relevant for navigating mental healthcare and self-advocacy within that field.

Emergency department patient advocate role and training. Policy statement. (2015). Annals of Emergency Medicine, 65(1), 130–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2014.10.024 

This statement describes the role of a patient advocate in an emergency room setting. It describes expectations and benefits of using a patient advocate, and it includes an endorsement of the use of patient advocates from the American College of Emergency Physicians. By understanding the benefits of a patient advocate and being aware of the role’s existence, people become more aware of the resources available for their benefit in a medical setting.

Videos

TrainingABC (Producer), & . (2017). Patient Rights Made Simple. [Video/DVD] TrainingABC. Https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/patient-rights-made-simple 

This video explains the patients bill of rights. It states what the rights are and how they are often applied. Topics about common mistakes, discrimination, advanced directives, and more are also explained. This provides an alternate format to learn about what rights a patient has in a healthcare setting and how to exercise those rights. 

Articles

Davino, M. M. (2006). Record requests. Medical Economics, 83(9), 33. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A146838132/AONE?u=albanyu&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=47ee3e71 

This document shows a legal question submitted by a doctor to a medical attorney that discusses releasing medical documents. The attorney’s response gives information about laws regarding patient medical records and medical record access. It explains the scope of record requests and patients' rights to records through the specific scenario being discussed. 

Dowling, R. A. (2022, January). Is your practice compliant with patient record access rules? Be sure to check and refresh your practice's policies for record requests. Urology Times, 50(1), 34+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A691000247/AONE?u=albanyu&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=379595b1 

This article discusses the HIPAA privacy rule as it relates to records requests. It explains what medical providers must do to be in compliance with requests made under the rule, including time frames for records to be given and more. It helps to provide a better understanding about accessing records and what that involves. Knowledge about requesting records either directly to the patient or to another provider’s office is important when trying to seek healthcare. 

Books

McIlwain, J. C. (2011). Consent : Practical Principles for Clinicians. Bentham Science Publishers. 

This book describes how consent is applied by doctors in medical practice. It focuses on the legal scope and boundaries of patient consent with the intent of making the many aspects of maintaining patient consent easier for doctors and trainees to understand. This source can be helpful for an in depth understanding of patient’s rights to consent. The “golden rules of consent” part of the book provides a concise understanding of patients rights to consent, with more explanations and definitions in the rest of the text.

What is HIPAA?

HIPAA is the legal privacy rule for health information. HIPAA regulations determine things like what information can or cannot be shared by medical providers, how information can be shared, and what people or organizations have to follow HIPAA rules (Sarata, 2025).

Fact Sheets

Sarata, A.K. (2025, May 4). The HIPAA Privacy Rule. [Fact Sheet] https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IG10068 

This fact sheet explains what HIPAA is and why it is in place. It also explains what information and entities HIPAA regulations apply to as well as the specific requirements of HIPAA. It's a government sanctioned and created document that shares reliable information about the legal aspect of HIPAA. This fact sheet defines some terms commonly used in healthcare visits, which can help patients understand forms they’re signing, what they agree to, and why certain actions are taken by the healthcare team.

Articles

Alder, S. (2025, January 8). HIPAA updates and HIPAA changes in 2025. HIPAAjournal.com. https://www.hipaajournal.com/hipaa-updates-hipaa-changes/ 

This article from the HIPAA Journal discusses the most recent changes in legal policy for HIPAA. It discusses what changes have happened in the past year, what changes are expected, and more. Direct references to the parts of policy changed, entities, etc. are provided through hyperlinks. This is a good supplementary material for concerns or inquiries about HIPAA privacy policies. 

5 HIPAA Violations You Need to Know. (2014). Missouri medicine, 111(1), 13. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6179505/ 

This short article explains five common HIPAA violations in the modern age of technology. Some explanation is provided with each example, to make it clear why or how each item violates patient privacy rights. This resource gives important information so that a patient to self-advocate in the case of a privacy violation. 

What is health literacy?

Health literacy involves having or not having the kind of information needed to make good, informed decisions about their health (Temple University Libraries, 2025). Having good health literacy can help you have more productive conversations with medical staff when you are seeking healthcare.

Databases/ Catalogues

Gale Health and Wellness. (nd). Gale Product Menu. Retrieved May 3, 2025, from https://libguides.library.albany.edu/GaleHealthWellness 

Access to articles, magazines, encyclopedias, videos, and multimedia resources about health and wellness topics. Materials include articles for health professionals, encyclopedia entries about specific topics, such as a specific drug type, informational videos, and audio files like NPR segments about health topics. This offers the ability to access health information in understandable terms and various formats. Users will get the most benefit from this database if they already have a topic in mind. However, the database does show what topics are new or popular at the moment.

Health Source – Consumer Edition. (nd). Retrieved May 3, 2025, from https://web-p-ebscohost-com.libproxy.albany.edu/ehost/search/advanced?vid=0&sid=6847937e-532d-4bc0-b358-687532c93bc3%40redis 

Access to articles about consumer health topics, like medicine, nutrition, childcare, and general health. It is a searchable database with reliable articles that are understandable to the general public and to professionals. This is useful to find information about health conditions, nutrition, etc. without going directly to a healthcare provider. This item can be used by professionals and laypeople, so search strategies are important. The best way to access items in more plain language within this database is to search for a specific term and filter the search to show results from magazines and/or reviews.

Books

Karen A. Friedman, & Sara L. Merwin. (2017). The Informed Patient : A Complete Guide to a Hospital Stay. ILR Press. 

This book describes the common parts of a hospital stay including what is or isn’t common and instructions on often forgotten topics, like how to prepare or how to best interact with medical staff. The book divides the process into different topics to make it more easily understood and aims to improve coordination between patients, families, and medical staff. This can be used to help prepare for a hospital stay so that a patient can know what to expect, what to ask, and how to make the process less overwhelming. 

Law, J., & Martin, E. A. (Elizabeth A. ) (Eds.). (2020). Concise medical dictionary (Tenth edition.). Oxford University Press. May 3, 2025. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198836612.001.0001/acref-9780198836612 

A dictionary of medical terminology that includes over 150 illustrations as well as countless entries. It defines terms for public health, specialized medicine, general practice, drugs, and more. While noted as useful for students, it’s accessible enough to laypeople that it is a useful resource. Many healthcare providers use medical jargon without thoroughly explaining in plain language, and this source can help the user to understand that content better. Many entries will reference other terms, but each entry includes hyperlinks to any other terms mentioned, so that the user can easily access more relevant information.

Guides & Statistics

PolicyMap. (nd). PolicyMap – Dig Deeper. https://www-policymap-com.libproxy.albany.edu/newmaps/e/albany 

PolicyMap is a Geographic Information System (GIS) that sorts and displays different kinds of data and statistics. It can be used to view health statistics based on population, location and more. Some of the filters can enable the user to locate pharmacies, physicians, common medical issues based on area, and more. It’s a very precise tool with a lot of different usable information, but it can be overwhelming. The interface appears complicated at first, so users need to take time to get used to it.

Temple University Libraries. (2025, March 31). Research guides: Consumer health: Health literacy. Health Literacy - Consumer Health - Research Guides at Temple University. https://guides.temple.edu/consumerhealth 

This guide from the Temple University Library explains concepts of health literacy. It clearly defines what health literacy is, why it’s important, and what effects health literacy. Guidance on how to improve health literacy is also included. Improving health literacy will improve the ability to understand and participate in healthcare, and this guide explains why and how to do this.