Abstract
The American Hospital Association (AHA) replaced its Patient’s Bill of Rights (PBR) with the Patient Care Partnership (PCP) in 2003. The PCP places greater importance on the partnership between care providers and their patients than what was seen in the PBR where such collaboration received less emphasis.
As the PBR was a pioneering effort in the area of patients’ rights, the author felt its replacement was significant and worthy of study to bring to the fore the important issues involved. The state of patients’ rights in Japan was also looked into for comparison.
The author has concluded that various ways to protect patients’ rights are developing in the U.S., and under this situation, the AHA sees its PCP as a contemporary improvement over the PBR in ensuring patients’ rights.
