As part of your medical care and related administration, and the monitoring of your patient file, the CHPG collects computerised personal data about you. Pursuant to Act 1165, Art. 14 of 23^rd December 1993, you have the right to correct data that concern you by sending a letter to the Director of the Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace.

Information about you collected for administrative and medical purposes by the CHPG may be passed on to external bodies and used for research in the healthcare field or by the healthcare networks to which the CHPG belongs. You may formally refuse the disclosure of your personal information by writing to the Director of the Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace.

If you wish, you may request the Admissions Office or the Cadre de Santé (Healthcare Executive) not to divulge your presence in the hospital.

No indication whatsoever of your presence will given to any person. This implies that you will notify your entourage that your presence at the hospital is being kept confidential.

In the Principality of Monaco, (pursuant to Act 1353 of 04/12/08, amending Act 1165 of 23.12.93 on data protection, and Sovereign Ordinance 2230 of 19/06/09, patients are entitled to access their medical records.

All information on treatment and care provided to you will be collated in a personal file, the contents of which are covered by strict medical confidentiality. You may access your medical file either directly or via your doctor, by submitting a written request to the Director of the Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace. Should you wish to obtain copies, you will be asked for a contribution to the administrative costs involved.

Clinical research is one of the activities conducted by the CHPG. The aim of this research is to improve treatment and diagnosis techniques. We may perform this research in several different ways:

• By collecting information from your medical records. This information will be used in a confidential manner. It will be anonymised then processed for statistical purposes.
• You have the right to access and correct the data that we collect for research purposes. You may exercise these rights, or object to the use of your personal data, by writing to the CHPG’s Department of Medical Affairs, International Cooperation and Research.
• By analysing tissue or blood samples collected during treatment. When we take blood or tissue samples as part of your treatment, some of the samples remain unused. Unless you object, we will retain any unused samples for research purposes.
  You may object to the retention and use of your samples by writing to the CHPG’s Department of Medical Affairs, International Cooperation and Research.
• By inviting you to take part in trials of new drugs, medical devices, administration methods or diagnosis and treatment techniques. Your doctor will talk to you about the purpose of the trial, how it will work and the associated risks. No action will be taken without your written consent. You will be free to terminate your participation in the trial at any time.
  These trials are authorised by special committees, which ensure that they comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

The Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace is committed to providing every patient with the care needed to ensure the best possible results, in line with current scientific advances, at the lowest possible risk and to the highest level of satisfaction. Risk management is designed to prevent the onset of undesirable events arising from treatment and, in the event that they do occur, to mitigate or eliminate their adverse effects and take steps to prevent their reoccurrence. Analysis of patients’ observations and undesirable events reported by healthcare professionals is an important factor in our policy of continuous improvement in patient services.

The nursing teams are committed to taking charge of your pain and informing you of its causes. You should note that:

• pain is not inevitable; putting up with it does not help and could affect your health
• pain can be prevented and treated, even though we cannot guarantee that you will be completely free of pain
• there is always a reason for pain. The medical teams will look for the causes in order to alleviate it as far as possible
• There may be various causes of your pain; discuss it with the medical staff.

The CLUDS (Committee for Pain Management and Palliative Care) is constantly looking into pain management and the latest developments in the treatment of pain.

Post-operative pain

The Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Department provides post-operative pain relief and offers the appropriate techniques, which are then administered by the department in which you are hospitalised.

Intractable chronic pain

• For outpatients, “chronic pain” consultations are provided by a pain specialist, in conjunction with various specialists and your doctor to ensure global, multidisciplinary care

• For inpatients, this type of pain is treated in the hospital departments by specially trained medical staff and doctors specialising in pain relief, using proven medical techniques

The CHPG has put in place effective means of combatting healthcare associated infections. It has a hygiene department and a Committee for Fighting Infections.

The CHPG carries out:

• monitoring of levels of infection in the operating theatre and infections in the resuscitation area
• an annual inquiry into the prevalence of nosocomial infections throughout the hospital
• epidemiological monitoring of multidrug-resistant bacteria

Based on the results of this monitoring, preventative action is taken by the epidemiology and hospital hygiene department.

All new staff members are trained in hospital hygiene and all the staff receive regular training.

In all the treatment departments, the policy for preventing healthcare associated infections is based on protocols developed with the care teams and is regularly evaluated through audits. Each department has a hygiene officer, who is specially trained and responsible for liaising between his or her team and the hospital hygiene department.

Finally, the epidemiology and hospital hygiene department is involved in various other work contributing to the prevention of healthcare associated infections, including advice on antibiotic prophylaxis and antibiotic treatment, preventative techniques when work is being carried out and bacteriological monitoring of the environment.

The implementation of these measures enabled the establishment to score highly in anti-healthcare associated infection indicators in 2009.