Email Consent Form Template – Every person should be able to make educated decisions about their health. Medical procedures can be sensitive, so patients must be able to ultimately determine according to the known risks of their body, how it will be treated. Therefore, before medical workers are allowed to provide treatment to patients they have to obtain what is known as informed consent.
Informed consent is a legal requirement under which a patient is provided with a full and complete description of his or her physical state as well as the treatment that is recommended by the physician who is acting as the patient’s physician. Once this information is received patients must give the doctor their consent to treat prior to any form of care is delivered. Without informed consent from the patient health care professional is not allowed to provide treatment.
Decision Making Capacity
In some cases patients don’t have the capacity to comprehend their options in terms of treatment and the potential risks and benefits associated with each. In other circumstances patients may not be able to communicate their decision to health care professionals. In such situations it is believed that the patient to lack the appropriate capacity for decision-making. If a family member is not present, or court appointed representative will then be permitted to give informed consent in lieu of the patient.
Patients who are heavily influenced by their emotions – anxiety or fear, for example – may be determined as not possessing decision making capacity. People who are not conscious cannot take decisions on their independent of themselves, so outsiders have to give consent for treatment instead.
Items in an Email Consent Form Template
There are certain elements that are common to all consent forms:
The patient’s medical condition/diagnosis
The recommended treatment is suggested by the doctor in charge
The risks and the benefits associated with this procedure
There are alternative treatments available, along with their potential risks and benefits
The potential risks and rewards with refusing treatment at all
These details must not only be documented in a written document however, they must been discussed by the patient. In this way, he or can fully comprehend the details of the situation and will receive immediate responses to any queries that might have arisen.