Patients' rights: a hospital survey in South Egypt.

We examined the awareness of and practices regarding patients' rights in one of the general hospitals in South Egypt. This cross-sectional study incorporated a convenience sample of the hospitalized patients and their companions (N = 292), as well as the actively working medical care providers (MCPs) at the time of data collection, 72 physicians and 48 nurses. Pretested structured questionnaires inquired about the way in which patients' rights are perceived by and exercised through the lived experiences of the sample group. An in-depth interview about patient rights' practices was conducted with the study hospital's highest-level manager. Three quarters of the patients and companions did not know about the list of patients' rights, compared to about half of the physicians and nurses—77%, 44%, and 48% respectively. Among those patients and companions who were knowledgeable about the list of patients' rights, mass media was their main source of knowledge, about eight times greater than their next source, pl...