Historical perspective on how some sites and means of professional caregiving became high or low status helps us understand trends in poor care continuity in US health care.
AMA J Ethics. 2022;24(9):E822-829. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2022.822.
Professor Wendy E. Parmet joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Claudia E. Haupt: “Holding Clinicians in Public Office Accountable to Professional Standards.”
The patient appears to have decision-making capacity, has head trauma, a headache despite intoxication, and is irritable—and she refuses a CT scan of the head.
Consent sounds like a laborious process that requires much time. Actually discussing a procedure or exam with a patient doesn’t take much more time than it took to read this paragraph.
Physicians make patients aware of those interventions that they (the patients) may then refuse. In short, informed consent is less about patient decisions than it is about restraining physicians.