Awareness and practice of patients' rights among hospitalized patients at Wad-Medani Teaching Hospital, Sudan.

Patients' rights are a fundamental human right and an important part of modern health care practice. This is a cross-sectional descriptive analytic study, conducted amongst 263 patients at Wadi-Medani Teaching Hospital, Sudan, in March-April 2015. Most patients (95.2%) did not know about the Bill of Rights and most of them (92.8%) were not able to mention any of the patients' rights. The most practiced rights were: the right to be asked for permission before examination (88.1%), proper handling (87.8%), safety of the hospital (87%), presence of a third person when examining a female by a male doctor (85.6%), and admission file confidentiality (75.5%). The awareness of Sudan FMOH Patients' Bill of Rights was very low among patients at Wad-Medani Teaching Hospital, yet they showed a high satisfaction rate probably due to their low socioeconomic status, educational level and expectations. Therefore, awareness of patients' rights must be increased.

Awareness and practice of patients' rights among hospitalized patients at Wad-Medani Teaching Hospital, Sudan

Patients' rights are a fundamental human right and an important part of modern health care practice. This is a cross-sectional descriptive analytic study, conducted amongst 263 patients at Wadi-Medani Teaching Hospital, Sudan, in March-April 2015. Most patients [95.2%] did not know about the Bill of Rights and most of them [92.8%] were not able to mention any of the patients' rights. The most practiced rights were: the right to be asked for permission before examination [88.1%], proper handling [87.8%], safety of the hospital [87%], presence of a third person when examining a female by a male doctor [85.6%], and admission file confidentiality [75.5%]. The awareness of Sudan FMOH Patients' Bill of Rights was very low among patients at Wad-Medani Teaching Hospital, yet they showed a high satisfaction rate probably due to their low socioeconomic status, educational level and expectations. Therefore, awareness of patients' rights must be increased

Les droits des patients constituent un droit humain fondamental et représentent une partie importante de la pratique des soins de santé modernes. Le présent article concerne une étude analytique descriptive transversale menée auprès de 263 patients entre mars et avril 2015. La plupart des patients [95,2%] n'étaient pas au courant de l'existence de la déclaration des droits, et la majorité d'entre eux [92,8%] n'était pas en mesure de citer ne seraitce qu'un droit des patients. Les droits appliqués le plus souvent étaient les suivants : le droit à être consulté avant tout examen clinique [88,1%], un traitement adéquat [87,8%], la sécurité des hôpitaux [87%], la présence d'une tierce personne lors de l'examen d'une patiente par un docteur de sexe masculin [85,6%], et la confidentialité des dossiers d'admission [75,5%]. Un très faible pourcentage des patients de l'hôpital universitaire de Wad-Medani avait connaissance de la déclaration des droits des patients du ministère fédéral de la Santé soudanais. Pour autant, les patients affichaient un taux élevé de satisfaction, certainement dû à leur faible statut socio-économique, à leur bas niveau d'éducation et à leurs attentes limitées. La connaissance du droit des patients doit donc être améliorée