Surgery Without Informed Consent in Virginia

‍The Elements of Informed Consent

When a patient is considering a procedure, he or she must be informed of:

• The diagnosis
• The purpose and nature of the suggested treatment
• The benefits of the procedure
• The alternatives
• The risks of the procedure and possible side-effects afterward

Under the principle of informed consent, the doctor or surgeon must not only secure the patient’s consent to treatment, but the treatment itself must be obtained from a fully informed patient.

When a patient consents to treatment, this may impose certain limits on his or her legal recourse. However, signing a statement assuming the risks inherent in a procedure does not mean that that the patient has no recourse to sue if a hospital or healthcare provider fails in a duty or is negligent.

Patients do not consent to unacceptable risks during surgery or another procedure under the doctrine of informed consent.

The Reasons for the Doctrine of Informed Consent

Informed consent goes to the very heart of shared decision-making, states the American Medicine Association. Patients should actively participate with their doctors. Giving them adequate information ensures they can play a significant role in making decisions that reflect their own values, preferences and future health outcomes. Physicians play a key role as educators in this process.

Many patients know very little about medicine. It’s, therefore, difficult for a doctor to confirm that a patient has given adequately informed consent. It’s imperative that the doctor discloses enough about the dangers and benefits of proposed treatments that the patient becomes sufficiently informed to participate in the shared decision making process.

However, a doctor may find it challenging to strike a balance between providing too much and too little information.