Informed Consent For Surgery: Even If A Nurse Witnesses Signing, Hospital Not Liable
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
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Quick Summary: Just because a registered nurse signed her name on the surgical consent form as a witness to the patient's signature the hospital did not gratuitously assume legal responsibility to inform the patient and obtain her consent.
The surgical consent form used at the hospital said, in small print, "The explanation of the operation or special procedure must be given to the patient by the named physician as only the physician is competent to do so." COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA, 1997.
The patient signed a surgical consent form for a modified radical mastectomy and immediate reconstruction with a latissimus dorsi flap. When the patient later learned a saline implant had also been used, she sued her physician and the hospital.
Before going to trial, the hospital asked the court to rule whether it was appropriate for the hospital to remain in the case to share responsibility along with the physician. The court ruled it was not, and the Court of Appeals of Indiana agreed.
The physician, not the hospital, has the legal duty to advise the patient and to obtain the patient's informed consent prior to surgery, the court ruled. According to the court, a nurse employed by the hospital witnessing a patient's signature on a surgical consent form does not change this basic fact of the physician-patient relationship. Auler vs. Van Natta, 686 N.E. 2d 172 (Ind. App., 1997).