Written patient consent required for sensitive exams, HHS guidance says

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Health

Published 12:58 PM EDT, Mon April 1, 2024


CNN — The US Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidance on Monday clarifying that hospitals must obtain written consent for sensitive exams, such as pelvic, breast or prostate exams – especially if patients will be under anesthesia during the exam.

Top officials from HHS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office for Civil Rights sent a letter on Monday advising teaching hospitals and medical schools of the new guidance and condemning the practice of performing sensitive exams on anesthetized patients without informed consent.

“The Department is aware of media reports as well as medical and scientific literature highlighting instances where, as part of medical students’ courses of study and training, patients have been subjected to sensitive and intimate examinations – including pelvic, breast, prostate, or rectal examinations – while under anesthesia without proper informed consent being obtained prior to the examination,” the letter says. “It is critically important that hospitals set clear guidelines to ensure providers and trainees performing these examinations first obtain and document informed consent from patients before performing sensitive examinations in all circumstances.”

The new guidance comes as public scrutiny of this traditional practice has grown. Studies from US medical schools show that it is common practice for students to perform sensitive examinations on anesthetized patients without informed consent. Patient advocates, doctors and medical students have expressed concerns about this practice and the level of consent obtained, the letter said.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/01/health/hospitals-written-patient-consent-pelvic-exams-hhs/index.html

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Link to HHS PRESS RELEASE - Letter to the nation’s teaching hospitals and medical schools

[Demovictory9]

1. Good. No more raping sleeping people

[Think. Again.]

2. I suspect it's an attempt to...

...pre-empt rightwing medical staff from checking for pregnancies.

[truthisfreedom]

3. Brilliant. So if such testing or examination occurs

The offender instantly is caught.

[Think. Again.]

5. If by "offender" you mean someone who may consider terminating their pregnancy...

...yeah.

Edit to add:

So the "discovered" pregnancy would then be documented, and if it isn't carried through to term, the pregnant person would then be charged with aborting it.

[Igel]

4. This stop that how?

You specifically consent to X, but Y happens instead.

As opposed you generally consented to approved procedures, call them "X", but Y happens instead.

Don't see it.

[Demovictory9]

6. Your point is valid

[pfitz59]

7. Penetration, however slight

DOD definition of rape. So yeah, no more poking without consent.

[Marthe48]

8. I was training for volunteer EMT

at the time, part of our training was spending 24 hours observing in a hospital e.r. My sister-in-law and I went to the nearest hospital, a small rural place. It was quiet and boring, but somebody came in with rectal pain. The nurse in charge of the e.r. the day we were there, offered to let us observe as she examined the person's butt. My sister-in-law and I looked at each other, and I thought, 'I am never, ever going to need to see that!' So we declined and took a break while the nurse did the examination. She was disappointed we didn't want to stay.

Glad that someone is increasing the ability to see patients as more than a body.