Patients' Care and Treatment Rights

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Mental Health
  4. Examination, Treatment, etc., for Mental Illness
  5. Rights and Privileges of Patients, Their Representatives, etc., Generally
  6. Rights and Privileges as to Manner of Care and Treatment and as to Maintenance and Release of Clinical Records
  7. Patients' Care and Treatment Rights

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  1. Each patient in a facility and each person receiving services for mental illness shall receive care and treatment that is suited to his needs and is the least restrictive appropriate care and treatment. Such care and treatment shall be administered skillfully, safely, and humanely with full respect for the patient's dignity and personal integrity.
  2. Each patient shall have the right to participate in his care and treatment. The board shall issue regulations to ensure that each patient participates in his care and treatment to the maximum extent possible. Unless the disclosure to the patient is determined by the chief medical officer or the patient's treating physician or psychologist to be detrimental to the physical or mental health of the patient, and unless a notation to that effect is made a part of the patient's record, the patient shall have the right to reasonable access to review his medical file, to be told his diagnosis, to be consulted on the treatment recommendation, and to be fully informed concerning his medication, including its side effects and available treatment alternatives.
  3. It is the duty of the chief medical officer to ensure that each patient receives such medical attention as is suitable to his condition and that no treatment shall be given which is not recognized as standard psychiatric treatment, except upon the written consent of the patient or, if applicable, his guardian having capacity to give such consent. If such consent is given by someone other than the patient or such guardian, court approval must be obtained after a full and fair hearing.
  4. If a patient hospitalized under this chapter is able to secure the services of a private physician or psychologist, he shall be allowed to see his physician or psychologist at any reasonable time. The chief medical officer is authorized and directed to establish regulations designed to facilitate examination and treatment which a patient may request from such private physician or psychologist.
  5. Every patient admitted to a facility under this chapter shall be examined by the staff of the admitting facility as soon as possible after his admission.

(Ga. L. 1958, p. 697, § 15; Ga. L. 1960, p. 837, § 14; Code 1933, § 88-514, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, p. 499, § 1; Code 1933, § 88-502.3, enacted by Ga. L. 1969, p. 505, § 1; Code 1933, § 88-502.4, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 1789, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1059, § 20; Ga. L. 1992, p. 1902, § 13.)

Cross references.

- Rights of mentally ill persons regarding consent to surgical or medical treatment generally, § 31-9-4.

Law reviews.

- For article, "The Right to Refuse Psychiatric Treatment: Law and Medicine at the Interface," see 35 Emory L.J. 139 (1986).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Duty to safeguard and protect patient.

- Private hospital in which a patient is placed for treatment owes duty of safeguarding and protecting patient from any known or reasonably apprehended danger from the patient which may be due to the patient's mental incapacity, and to use ordinary and reasonable care to prevent such danger. Brawner v. Bussell, 50 Ga. App. 840, 179 S.E. 228 (1935).

Breach of duty is an issue of fact.

- Trial court did not err in denying a psychiatrist's motion for summary judgment in a patient's medical malpractice action because whether the psychiatrist breached duties arising from the psychiatrist-patient relationship was an issue of fact; pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1, the patient presented expert testimony that the psychiatrist's breaches of the duty of care directly resulted in the foreseeable harm of the patient's attempting suicide. Peterson v. Reeves, 315 Ga. App. 370, 727 S.E.2d 171 (2012).

Failure to commit as breach of duty of care.

- Under some circumstances, the failure to commit may constitute a breach of the well-established duty of care physicians owe patients, and when a fact question has been created on that issue, the fact question is for the jury. Peterson v. Reeves, 315 Ga. App. 370, 727 S.E.2d 171 (2012).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Criminal responsibility for physical measures undertaken in connection with treatment of mentally disordered patient, 99 A.L.R.3d 854.

Right of state prison authorities to administer neuroleptic or antipsychotic drugs to prisoner without his or her consent - state cases, 75 A.L.R.4th 1124.

Prisoner's right to die or refuse medical treatment, 66 A.L.R.5th 111.


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