Objective: to describe the main aspects considered in documents in use designed to obtain informed consent of patients and if they point out the risks involved in a
Quantified way.
Method: a non-random sample in18 institutions providing public and private health services was obtained of the documents in use to get the informed consent of patients.
Results: 190 different documents were obtained. These could be classified as follows: 151 (79.4%) providing authorization in a general fashion for medical and surgical procedures including anesthesia and 39 (20.5%) informing the name of the specific procedure and emphasizing that the patient was aware of the risks involved. none giving numbers.
Comment: the first group of documents offers the patient the situation in such a general way that he/she can hardly express a clear opinion on the presented issue. The situation remains about the same in the second group, always pointing out that the patient is perfectly aware of the risks he should assume.
Conclusions: it is an absolute requirement to inform the patient de specific probabilities of each risk involved in the procedure he is about to consent. Clearly is not enough with a simple list of possible adverse outcomes.
Keywords: informed consent, formularies. |
