Every medical decision comes with risks and potential rewards. Health care professionals have extensive knowledge about different medical conditions and treatment options. They can diagnose their patients and then provide them with information about how to address their symptoms or the condition causing those symptoms.
Particularly when doctors recommend unusual forms of treatment, including experimental procedures, it is important that they obtain informed consent. The requirements for informed consent allow patients to make educated decisions about their care given their prognosis and the risks involved.
Unfortunately, doctors do not always obtain informed consent in the appropriate manner. Instead, they simply have patients sign a document stating that they have given informed consent. A signature on a piece of paper is not always indicative of truly informed consent.
What does informed consent require?
For a patient to provide informed consent, they must understand their diagnosis. They should understand the basic details about treatment that the doctor recommends, as well as alternative treatment options. The doctor should also ensure that they understand the risks, including the possibility of side effects.
Failure and success rates can also be an important component of informed consent procedures. Many doctors simply hand patients a specific pamphlet about a medication or treatment options. Others hand them off to support staff, who may rush them through signing a thick packet of documents, one of which is a sheet asserting that the patient provided informed consent.
However, if the patient signs that document unaware that the treatment is experimental and has a high failure rate, they may be able to credibly claim that they did not provide informed consent. Similarly, patients who are unaware of the most common and most severe side effects associated with specific treatments may not have been able to provide informed consent. They need to understand the risks, the alternative options and their chances of success to make an informed decision about their care.
The failure to obtain informed consent is a common deviation from medical best practices. In some cases, it may even constitute medical malpractice. Patients and grieving families who question the validity of informed consent paperwork may need to review the situation carefully.
If doctors cut corners when communicating with patients, their decisions could ultimately lead to poor medical outcomes. Filing a medical malpractice lawsuit can be a way to demand accountability from medical professionals and offset the harm caused by questionable treatment choices.