{"id":3342,"date":"2024-04-01T12:13:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T12:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=3342"},"modified":"2024-04-01T12:25:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T12:25:02","slug":"hospitals-must-get-written-patient-consent-for-pelvic-exams-h-h-s-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=3342","title":{"rendered":"Hospitals Must Get Written Patient Consent for Pelvic Exams, H.H.S. Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a letter to teaching hospitals, the federal health agency said that institutions could lose Medicare funding if they didn\u2019t comply.<\/p>\n

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The Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that hospitals must obtain written informed consent from patients before they undergo sensitive examinations \u2014 like pelvis and prostate exams \u2014 especially if the patients will be under anesthesia.<\/p>\n

A New York Times investigation<\/a> in 2020 found that hospitals, doctors and doctors in training sometimes conducted pelvic exams on women who were under anesthesia, even when those exams were not medically necessary and when the patient had not authorized them. Sometimes these exams were done only for the educational benefit of medical trainees.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the secretary of Health and Human Services, along with top officials from the department\u2019s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Office for Civil Rights, sent a letter to the country\u2019s teaching hospitals and medical schools denouncing the practice of doctors and students conducting the exams without explicit consent. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department is aware of media reports as well as medical and scientific literature highlighting instances where, as part of medical students\u2019 courses of study and training, patients have been subjected to sensitive and intimate examinations,\u201d the letter said. \u201cIt is critically important that hospitals set clear guidelines to ensure providers and trainees performing these examinations first obtain and document informed consent.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The department issued a set of guidelines clarifying a longstanding requirement that hospitals must obtain written informed consent as a condition for participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatients who are participating in future clinicians\u2019 education should be aware, should have the opportunity to consent, should be given the same opportunity to participate in that education that they would be given if they were awake and fully clothed,\u201d said Ashley Weitz, who underwent an unauthorized pelvic exam while she was under sedation in an emergency room. \u201cWe can only expect to have better trust in medicine when both patients and providers can expect a standard of care that prioritizes patient consent.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a letter to teaching hospitals, the federal health agency said that institutions could lose Medicare funding if they didn\u2019t comply.The Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that hospitals must obtain written informed consent from patients before they undergo sensitive examinations \u2014 like pelvis and prostate exams \u2014 especially if the patients will be under anesthesia.A New York Times investigation in 2020 found that hospitals, doctors and doctors in training sometimes conducted pelvic exams on women who were under anesthesia, even when those exams were not medically necessary and when the patient had not authorized them. Sometimes these exams were done only for the educational benefit of medical trainees.On Monday, the secretary of Health and Human Services, along with top officials from the department\u2019s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Office for Civil Rights, sent a letter to the country\u2019s teaching hospitals and medical schools denouncing the practice of doctors and students conducting the exams without explicit consent. \u201cThe Department is aware of media reports as well as medical and scientific literature highlighting instances where, as part of medical students\u2019 courses of study and training, patients have been subjected to sensitive and intimate examinations,\u201d the letter said. \u201cIt is critically important that hospitals set clear guidelines to ensure providers and trainees performing these examinations first obtain and document informed consent.\u201dThe department issued a set of guidelines clarifying a longstanding requirement that hospitals must obtain written informed consent as a condition for participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs.\u201cPatients who are participating in future clinicians\u2019 education should be aware, should have the opportunity to consent, should be given the same opportunity to participate in that education that they would be given if they were awake and fully clothed,\u201d said Ashley Weitz, who underwent an unauthorized pelvic exam while she was under sedation in an emergency room. \u201cWe can only expect to have better trust in medicine when both patients and providers can expect a standard of care that prioritizes patient consent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3344,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3345,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions\/3345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}