Patient Safety Movement: Informed consent blog

Summary

Clinicians often have competing priorities in the clinical setting which hinder their ability to provide time for thorough dialogue with patients. Often, this dialogue contains information about procedures or processes for which the patient needs a thorough understanding in order to make an informed decision. Due to the lack of time, sometimes this informed consent process is passed from the clinician to the medical assistant or nurse.

Furthermore, clinicians are increasingly facing pressure to visit with more and more patients, thereby cutting the time with each one shorter and shorter. Therefore, typically only the most essential information is discussed with the patient during these short times and often, education doesn’t make the cut. This asymmetrical information makes it difficult for patients to make informed decisions about their care and may create situations with unforeseen consequences. These workflow barriers within the system itself make it extraordinarily difficult for clinicians to effectively explain and discuss informed consent with their patients.