Informed Consent

Informed Consent Basics

Through dialogue and discussion with you, your patients become more knowledgeable partners in medical decision-making and develop realistic expectations about the outcomes of medical intervention. Ideally, informed consent discussions build trust and reduce surprise and disappointment if complications or adverse events occur.

General Informed Consent Guidelines

These guidelines are based in part on opinions and advice of malpractice defense attorneys in Massachusetts. CRICO recognizes that institutions should continue to have the flexibility to respond to such recommendations in a manner that will least disrupt the orderly provision of health care at the facility.

Patient receives blood transfusion against her wishes

A 44-year-old Jehovah's Witness received blood transfusions during treatment for necrotizing pancreatitis.

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Informed Consent Guidelines Overview Why have informed consent guidelines?

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Informed Consent Guidelines Overview

May 18, 2011

With broad access to more health care information than ever before, physicians must fully engage their patients in an informed decision-making process. An effective, and defensible, process of obtaining a patients consent to treatment involves a thoughtful discussion of available options (including no treatment), the relevant risks of each treatment option, and expectations for the results of treatment.
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Best Practice: Informed Consent that Sticks Stickers increase efficiency

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Best Practice: Informed Consent that Sticks

Jennie Wright, RN, CRICO

July 1, 2006

Documenting the informed consent process for office-based procedures is fundamental in modern medicine, yet practical challenges remain. Providers are instructed to augment standard consent forms with notes about specific areas that were discussed with the individual patient.
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Tighter Consent Rules from CMS Hospitals now expected to ensure compliance

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Tighter Consent Rules from CMS

Tom A. Augello, CRICO

September 1, 2007

The goal of the new guidelines is to ensure that patients can exercise their right to make informed decisions regarding their care, including being informed of their health status, being involved in care planning and treatment, and being able to request or refuse treatment.
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Informed Consent: Who's Doing What? Establishing a patient relationship

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Informed Consent: Who's Doing What?

Tom A. Augello, CRICO

September 1, 2006

“I see informed consents that others have gotten, and there will be a lot of rote-type items like possibilities include death, bleeding, infection or a laundry list of horrendous things. That, as far as I’m concerned, is useless. It first of all does not get you off any hooks in case death, infection, bleeding or those things happen but simply the fact that you have them listed there is not terribly valuable. If that’s all you have done is put those things down on paper and then had somebody sign it, you haven’t really done anything useful.”
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Informed Consent