title: [Not Available].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The 2002 Charter of Citizen Rights and Duties regarding Health and Healthcare establishes the Rights of health service users in Catalonia. There is limited information on the knowledge and perception of the Rights Charter and its observance among hospital professionals.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The current study tries to portray both the level of knowledge and perception of complying with these Rights among hospital workers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multi-center study was conducted on a sample of professional workers (n=963) representing ten hospitals belonging to the Public Utilization' Hospital Network of Catalonia. Professionals completed a structured form asking for socio-demographic and professional characteristics, Rights' knowledge and perception of their observance, provision of information of these in the hospital and preferred methods for providing this. Response frequencies were calculated for each item. Differences in knowledge and perception of observance of the Rights were analyzed by several individual characteristics of the respondents, by means the χ(2) test and estimation of frequency ratios with their 95% confidence intervals against a reference category.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 693 professionals (72%) responded, stating they knew 76.7% of the Rights, and considering 59.1% considered they respected them. A lower knowledge was demonstrated by non-care and general services professionals. The perception of their observance was more critical in women, qualified staff and night shift workers, while younger and graduate professionals had a more optimistic perception. Rights regarding the genetic make up of a person were lesser known (under 50%), whereas those regarding disease prevention, health promotion and protection, research and experimentation, and genetic make up were considered the least respected ones (under 50%). The level of knowledge was higher in care than non-care professionals for the ten Charter Rights groups. Noncare professionals had a perception of lower observance than care professionals, for the Rights related to the genetic make up of a patient and those related to research and experimentation (p<0.0001 in both cases). Performance in hospitals for providing information to professionals was reported by 56% of respondents, whereas actions addressed to users were reported by 71%. Preferred methods were written material, seminars and personalized information.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both the level of knowledge and perceived compliance to the Charter Rights, together with their low awareness in participant hospitals, promoting disseminating and learning methods in this area is recommended.
authors.affiliation: Direcció de Qualitat i Desenvolupament. Fundació Hospital/Asil de Granollers. Granollers. Barcelona. España. Electronic address: fmartinez@ajuntament.granollers.cat.
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martínez-Mateo
authors.forename: Josep M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ibáñez Romaguera
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fontanet Baqué
authors.forename: Consol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fusté Ballús
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ruesga Fernández
authors.forename: Lídia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Salas Arbues
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sánchez Fernández
authors.forename: Ana Sancho
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Gómez de Travesedo
authors.forename: Palmira
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tejero Cabello
authors.forename: Mercè
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tella Bernaus
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lledó Rodríguez