Practices of Documentating the Pre-Operative Informed Consent in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in a Tertiary Care Hospital – An Interventional Study

Abstract

An informed consent form plays a major role both in giving the needed information for the patient andas a legal tool for the doctor to carry out various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. This paper wasan interventional study, conducted in Department of Forensic Medicine, Sri Manakula Vinayagar MedicalCollege and Hospital, Madagadipet, Puducherry to audit and improve the current practices of using informedconsent forms by the faculties of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The practice of documentingthe informed consent forms obtained during the major surgeries of the concerned department was analyzedusing a validated check-list. Deficiencies were identified in the documentation and an intervention wascarried out to stress on the importance of documentation in the consent forms and the post-interventionalconsent forms were analyzed against the same validated check-list. The results of both the pre- and postintervention data on the documentation of consent form were analyzed and compared, which showed asignificant improvement in the documentation of the informed consent forms by the faculties of the Obstetricsand Gynecology Department. This study result will emphasis the role of intervention mode used to enhancethe documentation of informed consent forms.