California Patient’s Bill of Rights: PDF, Records, and Complaints

The California Patient’s Bill of Rights PDF that hospitals are required to post comes from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the underlying rights are set by Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 70707 for general acute care hospitals and by Health and Safety Code Section 1599.1 for skilled nursing and intermediate care facilities. CDPH distributes the formatted posters through its Licensing and Certification Program. You can also read the exact rights, without the poster formatting, straight from the regulations themselves.

Where to Download the Official PDF

CDPH publishes patient rights documents through its Licensing and Certification Program. The most direct route is to search the CDPH website for “All Facilities Letters,” known as AFLs. These are the official notices CDPH sends to licensed facilities, and they include the standardized posters and required text that hospitals hang in their lobbies and admissions areas.

Pick the version that matches your situation. California maintains one document for general acute care hospitals and a separate one for skilled nursing facilities, and the rights are not the same. If you want the poster and cannot locate it in the AFL archive, contact the Licensing and Certification Program directly.

If your goal is simply to know what your rights are, you do not need the poster at all. The regulation itself is public. Title 22, Section 70707 of the California Code of Regulations spells out the hospital rights, and Health and Safety Code Section 1599.1 covers nursing facility residents. Both are on free legal research sites.

What the Hospital Poster Actually Says

Section 70707 requires every general acute care hospital in California to uphold a specific list of patient rights and to post that list in areas where patients can read it, in both English and Spanish.¹ The protections most likely to matter during an actual hospital stay are these:

Informed consent. Before any procedure, you have the right to enough information to make a real decision: a description of the proposed treatment, the significant medical risks, the alternatives (including no treatment), and the name of the person who will perform the procedure. Emergencies are the one situation where this can be abbreviated.¹
Privacy. Discussions about your case, examinations, and treatment must be conducted discreetly. If someone is present who is not directly involved in your care, you can ask why.¹
Confidentiality. Your records and the communications about your care are confidential. Written permission is required before those records can be shared with anyone not directly involved in your treatment.¹
Participation in decisions. You have the right to take an active part in decisions about your care, and to refuse treatment to the extent the law allows.¹

The regulation only requires the posted list itself in English and Spanish. Broader language access at California hospitals runs through separate laws: the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act and the Kopp Act require services in any language spoken by at least 5% of the population served, and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits national origin discrimination in federally funded health programs, which has been read to require meaningful language assistance.²

Your Right to See Your Medical Records

The posted rights include confidentiality, but California adds a separate, enforceable right to see the records themselves. Under Health and Safety Code Section 123110, a healthcare provider must let you inspect your records during business hours within five working days of your request. If you want copies rather than an in-person review, the provider has 15 days.³

Providers can charge a reasonable, cost-based fee, capped at $0.25 per page for paper copies and $0.50 per page for records copied from microfilm. If you need records to support a claim for a public benefit program, you are entitled to copies of the relevant portions at no charge, though the provider gets 30 days rather than 15.³

Federal law runs alongside this. HIPAA’s access rule at 45 CFR 164.524 gives covered entities 30 days to act on a request, with one possible 30-day extension if they explain the delay in writing.⁴ The California inspection timeline is stricter, so in practice California patients get the faster of the two rules.

If You Are in a Nursing Facility, a Different Document Applies

Residents of skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, and hospice facilities are covered by a separate patient rights statute, Health and Safety Code Section 1599.1. The Legislature wrote these protections to reflect that these facilities are residents’ homes, not only medical sites.⁵ Facilities must maintain written policies on residents’ rights and make them available to residents, families, and the public.⁶

The statute reaches into everyday conditions. Facilities must employ adequate qualified staff, provide food consistent with physicians’ orders, keep the premises clean and sanitary, keep call systems working, and offer activity programs suited to individual residents.⁶

The protection residents most often need to know about is the right to stay. A Medicare- or Medicaid-certified facility can only transfer or discharge a resident when the move is necessary for the resident’s welfare, for the safety of others, because the resident’s health has improved to the point that the facility’s services are no longer needed, or for nonpayment. The facility must give 30 days’ written notice stating the reason, the effective date, the destination, the right to appeal, and contact information for the Long-Term Care Ombudsman. California guarantees the federal appeal to all nursing facility residents, regardless of payment source or the facility’s certification status.⁶

Facilities that hold residents’ money or valuables must keep detailed records and provide at least a quarterly accounting of every transaction made on the resident’s behalf.⁷ If the facility handles your money, you can ask to see exactly where it is going.

Advance Health Care Directives

Any adult with capacity can execute an advance health care directive in California. The document can include a power of attorney for health care and individual instructions about the treatment you do or do not want.⁸ No specific form is legally required, but the statutory form in Probate Code Section 4701 meets every legal requirement. The California Attorney General’s office recommends talking through your preferences in detail with whoever you name and identifying alternates in case your first choice is unavailable.⁹ You can register the directive with the California Secretary of State for a fee, which creates a centralized record hospitals can access in an emergency.

Emergency Rooms Are Governed by Federal Law First

Before the posted state rights come into play, federal law protects you in the emergency room. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires every Medicare-participating hospital with an emergency department to provide a medical screening examination to anyone who requests care, regardless of ability to pay or insurance status.¹⁰ That covers essentially every hospital in California.

If screening reveals an emergency medical condition, the hospital must provide stabilizing treatment with the staff and facilities it has, or arrange an appropriate transfer to a facility that can. It cannot delay screening or treatment to ask about insurance or payment.¹⁰ If a registration desk is asking for an insurance card before anyone has looked at you, that is a problem. The screening comes first.

Transfers of unstable patients are only allowed when a physician certifies the medical benefits outweigh the risks, or when the patient requests the transfer in writing after being told the risks. The receiving facility must have agreed to accept the patient and have the space and capability to treat them.¹⁰

Filing a Complaint When a Facility Ignores Your Rights

Complaints about a California hospital or nursing facility go to CDPH’s Licensing and Certification Division. The CalHealthFind complaint form on the CDPH website routes your complaint to the appropriate district office for investigation. You can also file in person or by mail at your local district office.¹¹

Investigators can act more effectively when your complaint is specific. Before filing, gather:

The full name and address of the facility.
Exact dates and times of the incidents, and the names of staff involved.
Which right was violated (for example, denial of records access, a privacy breach, or inadequate informed consent).
Copies of relevant medical records, written correspondence with the facility, and statements from any witnesses.

Nursing facility residents have an additional resource. The Long-Term Care Ombudsman program advocates for residents and can investigate complaints independently of CDPH. Facilities are required to give residents the ombudsman’s contact information under both state and federal law.

1
Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 22, 70707 – Patients Rights
2
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Section 1557 – Protecting Individuals Against Sex Discrimination
3
California Legislative Information. California Code HSC 123110 – Patient Access to Health Records
4
eCFR. 45 CFR 164.524 – Access of Individuals to Protected Health Information
5
California Legislative Information. California Code HSC 1599 – Legislative Intent
6
California Legislative Information. California Code HSC 1599.1 – Skilled Nursing and Intermediate Care Facility Patients Bill of Rights
7
Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 22, 72529 – Safeguards for Patients Monies and Valuables
8
Justia. California Code Probate Code 4670-4678 – General Provisions
9
State of California – Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General. Advance Care Planning
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1395dd – Examination and Treatment for Emergency Medical Conditions and Women in Labor
11
California Department of Public Health. Complaint