Observance of Patients’ Rights by Physicians and Operating Room Technicians

Background: Patients’ rights refer to specific legal privileges related to physical, psychological, spiritual, and social needs that have been reflected in the form of medical standards, rules, and regulations, and the health system and medical staff are responsible for their observance. Objectives: The present study aimed to assess the observance of patients’ rights by physicians (surgeons and anesthesiologists) and technicians (anesthetists and operating room technicians). Methods: This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 142 operating room technicians and physicians working in hospitals affiliated with Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences in 2018. The participants were selected using stratified random sampling. The patient rights observation checklist was completed by indirect observation of the participants’ performance, and the data were analyzed with SPSS version 20 using the chi-square test and independent samples t-test. Results: The mean scores for the extent to which patients’ rights were observed by all technicians and all physicians were 69.7 ± 10.5 and 57.17 ± 11.7, respectively. The corresponding values were 65.15 ± 9.36 and 54.27 ± 11.24 for the anesthesiologists and surgeons and 84.16 ± 7.31 and 66.63 ± 8.23 for the anesthetists and operating room technicians, respectively. The patients’ rights observance scores were significantly higher for the anesthetists than for the operating room technicians (P = 0.001) and higher for the anesthesiologists than for the surgeons (P = 0.005). Conclusions: This study indicated that although anesthesiologists and anesthetists observed patients’ rights more than operating room technicians and surgeons, the observance of patients’ rights in the operating room was generally moderate. Thus, it is essential to hold refresher courses in medical ethics and patient rights for medical staff.