The Informed Consent Document

Michael Grossman, San Antonio Medical Malpractice Lawyer, Discusses The Informed Consent Document

Many victims who have been injured due to the negligence of a medical professional worry that they will not be able to seek compensation since they signed an informed consent document. Thankfully, this is not necessarily the case (though medical professionals or insurance companies may lead you to believe that it is in an attempt to avoid paying you).

It may appear that the purpose of the informed consent document is to inform patients about procedures, but their true purpose is to protect healthcare providers from accepting legal responsibility for their mistakes. But in many situations, you can still seek compensation, even if you signed an informed consent document. San Antonio medical malpractice lawyer Michael Grossman from Grossman Law Offices is here to tell you how informed consent documents work, and how you can seek compensation if you have signed one.

The Specifics of the Informed Consent Document

Medical professionals will typically make you sign an informed consent document before any medical procedure, whether it is a course of treatment, medication, or a surgery. A typical informed consent document includes the following features:

• A basic description of the medical condition that the proposed procedure is supposed to treat.
• A description of the general purpose of the proposed procedure.
• A description of the procedure itself, including any potential adverse reactions or side-effects.
• Information about any known risks associated with the procedure, including:
  • Pre-existing conditions that might make the proposed procedure more dangerous for a specific patient.
  • The possible benefits that could result from the procedure.
  • A description of any existing alternatives to the procedure, including their benefits, risks, and possible side-effects.
• Information about health problems that could arise should the patient elect not to undergo the proposed procedure.
• A disclosure of the fact that the procedure might have some unforeseen and unforeseeable risks.
• An acknowledgment that the patient can choose not to undergo the procedure now or at any time in the future.
• Acknowledgment that choosing not to undergo the procedure does not void the patient’s right to continue receiving current medical treatment or to receive additional medical treatment in the future.

Simply put, the informed consent document should attempt to give the patient enough information to make an informed decision as to whether or not to undergo the proposed medication schedule, surgery, or other treatment.

Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim Even Though You Signed An Informed Consent Document

A signed informed consent document does not automatically make a medical professional immune to liability. Certain conditions can allow a plaintiff to hold a medical professional accountable for his or her injuries, even in the presence of an informed consent document. But as you surely know, the various medical fields are incredibly complex, and the specific decisions that go into determining a course of medical treatment are over the head of most juries (and most patients, despite the informed consent document). To address this complexity, the courts apply three standards to a medical malpractice claim: the reasonable physician standard, the subjective patient standard, and the reasonable person standard.

The reasonable physician standard simply concerns what any reasonable physician would tell a patient about a proposed procedure. The medical provider is responsible for telling a patient everything about a proposed procedure as dictated by the reasonable physician standard. This allows a jury to determine whether or not the medical professional provided enough general information about the procedure in an informed consent document.

The subjective patient standard concerns the details which the specific patient in question would likely want to know about the proposed procedure. Each patient has unique concerns, and medical professionals have a responsibility to know enough about their patients to provide them with these details. Obviously, this standard is not easy to apply, and it must be extensively investigated on a case-by-case basis.

The reasonable person standard considers whether or not a typical, reasonable person would have consented to the proposed procedure, given the information that the plaintiff had about the procedure when the informed consent document was signed.

The standards set in some of these elements rely largely on expert witness testimony from medical professionals in the defendant’s field. Our attorneys can make sure your case has the witness testimony it needs to prove that were the victim of negligence.

Did You Know?

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When the above standards are not met, someone hurt due to a medical professional’s negligence can file a medical malpractice claim, even though he or she signed an informed consent document. Applying these standards to a case is not easy for someone without extensive experience, but thankfully, the attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been helping victims of medical malpractice for twenty years. We have successfully investigated hundreds of cases, and we are intimately familiar with the laws and regulations surrounding medical malpractice claims. Insurance companies and healthcare providers know who we are, and how successful we have been. In many cases, they cooperate fully with our settlement demands so that we can secure a fair settlement without even taking your case to court. In other words, our legal professionals will work hard to get you back on your feet as painlessly as possible. So if you have been hurt due to the negligence of a medical professional, do not let that negligence go unpunished just because you signed an informed consent document. Contact aggressive San Antonio medical malpractice attorney Michael Grossman at Grossman Law Offices today, and let our firm help you seek the fair settlement you need and the justice you deserve.