Invented by Mr Stephen Lake, a Consultant Surgeon, and pioneered by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, eConsent has enabled the Trust to improve patient experience, save consultant time and standardise information delivery processes. Using eConsent at the Trust in an access-controlled manner has enabled competent clinicians to give individual patients and their carers much more information about the procedure, including the speci c risks and bene ts involved for that individual.From the Trust point of view, it saves a considerable amount of time, as it means individually adjusted pre-populated forms can be printed out, rather than the clinician having to handwrite them. The form is stored on the server and can be scanned back into the system once signed.
Following eight successful years at the Trust, a joint venture has been formed with e-Health Innovations to launch eConsent into the wider NHS market.
Benefits for patients and carers:
• Improved consent process with clear information about the procedure; risks; benefits and alternatives. The consultation focuses on the patient rather than writing out the consent form.
• The system has in-built notification of individual competency to ensure that consent is obtained only by individuals trained and competent to explain the specified procedure and thus obtain informed consent.
• Patients (and if appropriate - their carers) receive information sooner in the process – with more time to consider options and obtain further information if required.
• Facility exists to support the process by e-mailing the documentation produced to the individual patient if requested during the consultation.
Benefits for staff obtaining consent:
• Reduction in time spent by healthcare professionals with cessation of hand-writing individual consent forms – saving clinician and clinic time.
• Development of‘gold standard’procedure-speci c patient information lea ets which gives consistent information.
• Identification of agreed risks, benefits and alternatives for each procedure performed within the different departments of the Trust with production of a ‘checklist’ of risks and benefits to guide each consultation.
• Well-developed linkage with Patient Administration portal allowing rapid individualised access to the system during each patient consultation.
The standard, long-standing process for discussing and obtaining procedure consent relies upon a manual process. Whilst it is ultimately the responsibility of the senior responsible clinician, it is often handled inappropriately by a more junior member of the team. Manual consent forms which rely on memory are often incomplete; littered with acronyms and abbreviations; and sometimes are even missing dates or signatures.
eConsent prepares the nationally agreed forms for obtaining procedure consent, with corresponding information lea et(s), while satisfying the associated regulatory requirements. Patients undergoing planned procedures have more time to review documentation either personally or with their carers to understand the risks and bene ts of the procedure before agreeing to proceed. Having a standardised approach enables auditing of clinical practices with the additional bene t of reduced risk of litigation.
Clinical ‘risks’ and ‘benefits’ are automatically populated based on the individual patient and the planned procedure from a pre-determined and clinically approved ‘library’, to provide agreed, standardised and relevant clinical information. This enables consistency and accuracy, providing all relevant risks and benefits and thus ensuring the patient is fully and comprehensively consulted, with readily accessible evidence should it ever be required.
For further information http://www.e-healthinnovations.com/