Support for the concept of “patient as partner” has been gaining momentum and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) will be shining an even brighter spotlight on this issue in upcoming months. As part of its 2007 National Patient Safety Goals, JCAHO has added a new goal – Goal 13 – which directs hospitals and clinics to “encourage patients’ active involvement in their own care as a patient safety strategy.”

Providers and patient safety groups are unanimous in their agreement that patient involvement can only enhance care outcomes. But they also concur that improved involvement requires patients to fully understand their condition, available treatment alternatives, ongoing care and likely prognosis.

Three significant hurdles can impede a patient’s ability to grasp all the nuances that impact their care:

1. Most procedures and treatment plans are highly complex and difficult to understand.

2. The terminology used to explain them is foreign.

3. Providers rarely are able to invest the amount of face-to-face time required to translate all aspects of the procedure into lay terms and explain them fully.

The informed consent process is designed to help overcome these obstacles, but traditional paper-based approaches have proven to be severely limited. One-size-fits-all forms lack specificity and don’t provide the opportunity for providers to document details germane to a specific procedure that a patient is slated to undergo. Plus, providers often modify the forms to meet their own needs – sometimes abbreviating important information or overlooking it altogether.

Through the use of automated informed consent applications, however, healthcare organizations can transform the process into something that is highly effective, enabling providers to meet emerging patient safety goals like those mandated by JCAHO. These applications provide a range of tools providers can use to ensure patients receive comprehensive – and comprehensible – information:

• A menu of procedure-specific consent forms, written in simple terminology for most medical/surgical procedures;

• A library of patient education materials for thousands of conditions and treatments;

• An extensive anatomical image gallery that allows the physician to annotate images and simplify complex topics for the patient.

Some of the more comprehensive automated informed consent applications enable providers to customize and print materials for each patient to ensure they have the information they need. Because the materials are already written in easy-to-understand language, providers spend no time translating medical jargon, instead devoting the entire patient encounter to actually discussing the upcoming procedure.

In addition to encouraging greater patient involvement, this level of education also helps reduce anxiety. Patients understand their condition, treatment, possible side effects and anticipated outcomes. Ultimately, the “no-surprises” environment produced by automated informed consent means patients respond more calmly throughout the episode of care, which accelerates recovery. For instance, well-informed prostate cancer patients understand they may experience a post-radiation elevation in their PSA levels – and so they are not alarmed when this occurs. Plus, patients who are truly “informed” are more likely to comply with post-procedure instructions and appear for follow-up appointments.

There is no doubt that the new JCAHO patient safety goals set the bar high. But increased patient involvement is an important issue that can be achieved if patients clearly understand their condition and the consequences of treatment choices they make. Automated informed consent makes this possible by removing common barriers and helping providers place easy-to-understand materials in patients’ hands – truly making them a “partner” in their own care.

James E. Gottesman, MD, is a practicing urologist in Seattle. He also serves as a consultant for Atlanta-based Dialog Medical, a leading provider of informed consent and patient education systems for healthcare organizations and physician practices.