Informed consent emergency patients

Security services will be provided for applications to apply appropriate business rules for access control of records based on the identity, roles, and purposes (i.e., business functions), in addition to distributed security services for authentication, authorization, confidentiality, integrity and nonrepudiation, to protect the best interests of stakeholders. Later in this book we will discuss the notion of a stakeholder in healthcare. It suffices here to say that these are the people legitimately involved in healthcare such as the patient, physician, and emergency medical staff. In some definitions stakeholders are the only people who can access the patient record. There are usually a special provisionings for the emergency care staff to access the patient data without an explicit informed consent in the event that the patient is unconscious. 

It is interesting to think about what this means. In the future it will not be assumed a divine right, as it seems to be in many parts of the world at present, that physicians can share patient data with other physicians simply because they are physicians. The health information that contains protected (by law) personal information can be shared only after acquiring an explicit informed consent from the individual. The important exception to this is when the purpose of sharing the information is consistent with the purposes intended at the time of collection of the information or in the medical emergency such as the case where a person is in a critical condition but unconscious. A general consent at the time of collection, and probably built into the system as a... 

Before starting any elective embolization it is important to talk to the patient and obtain informed consent. In talking to the patient, emphasis should not only be on the advantages but also on the risks and complications of embolization therapy. Alternative therapeutic options should be discussed. In both emergency and elective embolization there is no scientific proof that antibiotics should be given prior to embolization. Always work as a team with the referring physician, to have a back-up plan for possible procedure failure or complications. 

Sample letter 4 (see Figure 9.4) is written to a mental health care professional who is acting as the screening clinician in the psychiatric emergency department of the county mental hospital. There is no mention of a release of information or consent from the patient, allowing the therapist and screening clinician to speak to each other. It would be good... 

Obtain proper release of information and consent to share information from patient prior to contact (unless dire emergency). 

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