Outpatient Surgery Magazine

OR Excellence Award Winners - September 2017 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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• Have a discussion and document the exchange. Although some patients may look at informed consent as "just another form to sign," its purpose is to give patients an opportunity to have a conversation about the procedure, so they can make an informed decision. Give each patient an opportunity to ask questions, and have the surgeon take precise notes of the exchange, including any concerns the patient has, along with the surgeon's response to those concerns. Alleviating tensions If an adverse event does occur, a signed consent form may offer some protections, legally speaking, if the patient raises a challenge to con- sent. But some of your best protections in that kind of situation may be the efforts you make to keep the lines of communication open. Offer a willing ear and enable patients and their families to ask ques- tions about what happened; your job then is to provide honest answers in return: "This is what happened, here's what we did about it to resolve the situation, and here's what we intend to do to make sure something similar doesn't happen to someone else." If there's a good relationship established between patient and provider at the outset, it may help to alleviate tensions, and it may even diminish the likelihood of the patient taking legal action down the road. In many malpractice lawsuits, you tend to hear plaintiffs offer the same kind of complaint when they are deposed: "They wouldn't talk to me after X happened." It's this kind of anger and offense that ultimately leads an injured party to the doorstep of a mal- practice lawyer. OSM Ms. Riley (arriley@burnswhite.com) is a healthcare attorney with Burns White Attorneys at Law in Kingston, Pa. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 2 9

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