Informed Consent Case Study

“Extra procedures and risks had been added, written in lowercase around the edges of the original text, which was in capitals. These seemed intended to make it appear that the surgery carried out had been planned from the start.” (Feinmann) Marlene Clarke, 69, was completely oblivious of the potential risks of the extensive operation on her cancerous lymph nodes. This lack of knowledge is in part because they were not included in her Informed Consent document that she signed at Nottingham University Hospital in the United Kingdom. While she read the form, the procedure appeared seamless without potential flaw or issue. She had no reason to doubt the success of the surgery, that is until she woke up afterwards. The surgery was an utmost failure
The possibility of the physician’s misconduct grew as the family learned that Marlene lacked a copy of the consent form when she had signed it. While this single incident may have stemmed from a genuine mistake on behalf of the physician, Marlene’s family would later learn that this case was one of many. In 2013, the Care Quality Commision, a committee that monitors health care providers in the United Kingdom, inspected Nottingham University Hospital and discovered that the hospital had retained 85% of patients consent forms. Concerned after hearing the CQC’s report, Marlene’s son, John Clarke states, “But when, in one ward, almost every form has been retained, one wonders if this could be something that is happening systematically. If so, it's extremely dangerous for patients.” Upon further investigation at other local hospitals, the CQC concluded that Nottingham University Hospital was not the only institution violating the terms of consent
Experts warn that many doctors fail to include crucial information about treatments with their patients (Feinmann). This issue is extremely underplayed considering the potentially grave consequences miscommunication can cause in the medical industry. Informed Consent forms are especially crucial in the terms of many procedures, trials, and in prescribing medication. While these errors may seem harmless, they can be a means of life or death of a patient. Without a proper system of informing patients and having proper information retention strategies, avoidable medical miscommunications will continue to occur. CRIGO Strategies, a research company affiliated with hospitals in the Boston area, concluded that nearly 2,000 patient deaths resulted from poor communication between doctors and patients. These easily avoidable errors costed hospitals over 1.7 billion U.S dollars (Bailey). In another study done by CRIGO, miscommunication between patients and doctors accounted for 30% of the medical malpractice cases they studied. “We’ve been working on this for a long time, and it continues to be a big problem,” says Frank Federico, the current vice president of patient safety at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Bailey). While many