If one wants to make something understandable for the largest possible population, then it might make more sense to offer language that can be absorbed by an 8th grader, instead of an 11th grader, for instance. Institutional review boards, for instance, recommend the lower level.

However, a recent analysis of informed consent documents from 15 studies found that the forms are aiming too high.

http://www.anesthesiologynews.com/ViewArticle.aspx?d=Policy+&+Management&d_id=3&i=December+2011&i_id=793&a_id=19827

NOTE: At http://www.ePodiatryConsentForms.com, we aim right.

Ann Miller RN MHA
[Executive-Director]

If you are interested in technology to enhance your surgical practice – and benefit your patients – we invite you to purchase our innovative products and services.

We are looking for savvy podiatrists – to use our unique CD-ROM template system for taking fully informed consent from patients when booking surgical or invasive procedures – as a normal part of their podiatry practice.

There are no hidden costs

http://www.ePodiatryCeonsentForms.com will provide you with customizable templates for 50 different surgical procedures, with the ability to alter content according to the needs of your patients. A ‘Form Editor’ function allows you to amend these to your own preferences, so that creating the form is quick and efficient.

With traditional keyboard and “point and click” screen technology, all forms can be signed and stored electronically, suiting both electronic medical records [eMRs] and paperless practices. A copy can be sent directly to referring doctors, anesthetists, HP physicians or the admitting hospital or ASC.

Enhance the functional and marketing image of your practice, increase your efficiency – and involve and impress your patients – giving then the opportunity to communicate with you and pull then into the digital world of healthcare.

Soon to come – automated patient questionnaires and feedback after surgery – audit your results electronically!

Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
[Founder and CEO]

To address that thorny issue, ONC has hired APP Design to develop an electronic consent initiative that will educate patients about their choices.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC’s) Office of the Chief Privacy Officer has awarded a $1.2 million contract to APP Design to support its e-Consent initiative, which seeks to find ways to educate patients about their options for sharing their health information.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/patient/231900227

Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

WASHINGTON – Patient consent is one of the thornier issues in healthcare today. The benefits of patients allowing providers to share their data and those providers, in turn, playing nicely with competitors, stand to improve care both for individuals and global populations in myriad ways.

http://www.govhealthit.com/news/onc-aims-ease-patient-consent-problem

Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA CMP™
http://www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has announced the “soft launch” of an initiative to use metadata tagging to create patient consent-management controls over the movement of sensitive elements of patients’ electronic records. The controls, the ONC noted in an e-mailed statement, are in keeping with recommendations of a December 2010 report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The ONC’s Office of the Chief Privacy Officer and the Office of Standards and Interoperability are leading the initiative, which aims to “address standards for the ability to exchange parts of a medical record (often called data segmentation),” according to the statement. The initiative is part of the ONC’s Standards & Interoperability Framework.

Source: Joseph Conn, Modern Healthcare [9/19/11]

Patient safety checklists are now state law, as Nevada signed the Patient Protection Checklist bill (AB 280) into legislation this week.

More recently spearheaded by advocate Atul Gawande, MD, author of the Checklist Manifesto, the concept is simple: providers on the healthcare team should call out basic patient information and a plan prior to procedure with the aim to prevent medical errors and improve patient outcomes.

Read more: Patient safety checklists mandated by state law – FierceHealthcare http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/patient-safety-checklists-mandated-state-law/2011-05-26?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1VzycQjvV

Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
http://www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

The principle of informed consent requires a physician to provide information about a patient’s medical condition and the available medical care options so that the patient may make an informed decision as to whether or not to consent to a proposed plan of treatment. The doctor must adequately inform the patient of the diagnosis, the nature and purpose of the treatment, any available alternatives, the benefits and risks of the procedure itself and the risks of not undergoing the procedure. In essence, under the concept of informed consent, the doctor must not only get the patient’s consent to treatment, but the treatment must be obtained from a fully informed patient.

While consenting to treatment may impose certain limits on your rights, signing a statement assuming the risks involved with a procedure does not mean that you have no recourse if the health care provider fails to perform according to acceptable levels of care and is negligent. Though you may be consenting to certain risks inherent in the medical procedure, you generally do not consent to the negligence of the practitioner performing the procedure.

Forms of consent

Consent to a treatment can be given either orally or in writing, as is common where doctors provide consent forms for patients to sign. There are some situations where consent of a patient is implied, as where the patient exhibits conduct indicating a willingness to undergo the treatment, or in the case of an unconscious patient who is unable to consent, and there is no family member available to give consent on his or her behalf (and no living will which directs otherwise).

If the patient is a child it is usually necessary for a parent or guardian to consent to any treatment, unless treatment is required in an emergency situation and the parent or guardian is unavailable to give consent. Exceptions may apply to situations where a minor seeks treatment for a sexually transmitted disease, or for alcohol or drug problems.

Damages

The damages a patient may recover in this kind of medical liability action are different from the damages that might be obtained in a medical malpractice negligence action. Because the liability relates to the lack of consent to a procedure, a patient may be able to recover damages even if the medical procedure was successful, whereas in a negligence case, the plaintiff is required to prove damages.

Source: http://www.johnsonvorhees.com/content/embed/MO/pi/malp/malp_informconsent/

Healthcare-acquired infection (HAI) rates at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) were below national averages, according to a New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services report. How did it do it? Through a statewide patient safety checklist!

http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/checklist-prompts-low-infection-rates-dartmouth-hitchcock/2011-08-09?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Ann Miller RN MHA

By Karen M. Cheung

Long, jargon-filled consent forms, not surprisingly, may result in patients not fully understanding their care, according to a Johns Hopkins University study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Researchers looked at 124 informed consent documents of HIV/AIDs research patients and found that the median length of the form was 22 pages. In addition, the forms required at least a ninth-grade reading level, and confidentiality sections required a 12-grade reading level. The authors recommended that consent forms have simpler language.

The recent stent scandal raised questions about patients’ informed consent. When Dr. Mark Midei of St. Joseph Medical Center in Maryland was convicted of performing unnecessary heart stents, many wonder whether his patients fully understood the medical procedures, its necessity, and effects, according to an editorial in The Baltimore Sun. In addition, the case highlighted the responsibility of informed content on the physician, the patient, and the organization. St. Joseph’s CEO Jeffrey K. Norman also recently announced he is resigning at the end of this month.

“Consent forms are extremely long, exceeding recommendations for how much information readily can be processed. Networks should consider providing shorter consent templates, consistent with federal recommendations,” states the study.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/08/01/prsd0803.htm

http://www.springerlink.com/content/n2671q0593647610/

In the second part of his conversation with H&HN senior editor Matthew Weinstock, surgeon, writer and public health researcher Atul Gawande, M.D., discusses how checklists can build safer hospitals, and explores his partnership with the South Carolina Hospital Association to install checklists in every state hospital.

http://www.hhnmag.com/hhnmag/HHNDaily/HHNDailyDisplay.dhtml?id=8960004717

“When properly implemented, surgical checklists can save thousands of lives.”

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