Reference no: EM133512974

Problem

Everyday in health care facilities patients are asked to give permission to have a procedure performed on them. For example, how many times have you had your blood drawn or an X-ray completed? Each time a procedure is completed the staff member has to have consent to treat you. Often times when you check into a health care facility you are signing a general consent for treatment which cover 95% of processes.

When it comes to having patients signing a consent that are confused or are on a medication that alters their decision making, I believe the treating healthcare provider should be determining that the patient is in the right mind to sign a consent. However, there can be some exceptions to this.

There may be times where a patient has a condition that has not yet been diagnosed or been made aware of. Or potentially a patient is unknowingly currently on a medication that causes their decision making to become altered. Maybe they are taking a medication that they have bought illegally or are taking it out of the context it was prescribed to treat, deciding to do so on their own. In these cases, this is therefore one of the reasons a consent is provided to a patient in the first place.

We cannot guarantee that everyone is in the right mind or not on mind altering medications or substances. We hope that patients who have a condition that alters their decision-making skills will have already been diagnosed with this condition, and therefore have a Power of Attorney or an Advance Directive in place, however this is not always the case. In this day and age, it is of the utmost importance that a healthcare provider and facility have consents to protect their healthcare workers, and also for the well-being of the patient themselves. Sometimes this is done so that a patient knows the medical risks that could take place, other times this is due to possible financial liabilities coming into play if certain services are not covered, yet a patient is adamant to still proceed with the service.

In general I think health care consents are basically a sort of "insurance" in a way protecting the healthcare provider, the patient, and other health care workers involved as well, and is a necessity. Just like in other professions, this was learned by trial and error over the years when law suit charges were placed due to not having these legal documents in place to prevent such charges.

What is your opinion on patients signing consent that are confused or on a medication that alters their decision making? Whose responsibility is it to make sure they are of 'proper mind' to sign the forms? Should it be the facility or the patient?