Page 10 - 2022 Risk Basics - Surgical Practice

SVMIC Risk Basics: Surgical Practice

or a failure in the informed consent process. Common

examples of breakdowns in communication between physician
and patient include:

 Insufficient patient counseling: Failure to educate

regarding the impact of smoking on surgical healing

 Inadequate discharge instructions: Failure to instruct as
to what post-op symptoms to look for and when to notify

the physician

 Lack of informed consent: Failure to review pertinent

risks, benefits, and alternatives to the proposed

procedure, and failure to ensure patient’s questions are
answered

Informed Consent

Communicating with patients and families when they are in
the midst of a stressful situation, such as a facing an operation

with or without hospitalization, can be challenging. While
informed consent is rarely the central issue in a lawsuit, it is

almost always included as an allegation. In the claims

reviewed in which consent was an issue, it was related to the
failure to review specific risks, benefits, and alternatives

associated with a proposed procedure, as well as to ensure the

patient had an opportunity to have his or her questions
answered. It’s well-settled that physicians have a legal and

ethical obligation to provide patients with sufficient information
with which they can make an informed election about the

course of their medical treatment. But, what frequently gets
overlooked in the informed consent process is that this

discussion is an additional opportunity to establish or solidify

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