QWhat is your policypractice regarding obtaining and documenting consent for treatment when capable patients are admitted to your inpatient mental health unit?

Is this a different practice than the one that is in place for the medical units in your hospital?


A
We follow the provisions of the Health Care Consent Act for capable patients and the Substitute Decisions Act for incapable patients.

Providence Care, Mental Health Services site is a specialty mental health facility, therefore there are no medical units in the hospital. This practice is the same as for that followed at another hospital in our organization, St. Marys of the Lake Hospital site, which provides complex continuing care and rehabilitation.

Informed consent is documented by the physician in the patients permanent record after the patientSDM has received information about the nature of the proposed treatment, its expected benefits, the material risks (i.e. both common and serious risks), special risks or material side effects associated with it, alternate courses of action and likely consequences of not having the treatment.

The person making the decision must also receive responses to his or her requests for additional information about the treatment. Consent to treatment may be expressed or implied.

There are specific consent forms that are attached to some procedures, e.g. electroshock therapy, blood transfusions, immunizations.

QWhat is your policypractice regarding obtaining and documenting consent to treatment when capable patients are admitted to your outpatient mental health services?


A
Consent to treatment is documented by the psychiatrist in the assessment note on intake

QWhat is your policypractice regarding obtaining and documenting consent to treatment for incapable patients admitted to your inpatient mental health unit? If the treatment being ordered is the same that the patient was receiving at a LTC facility or transferring hospital, and consent was obtained by that other facility
Do you accept that consent?
Do you obtain your own consent?


A
We work with the Substitute Decision-Maker and document accordingly. If the patient is transferred from another facility, we obtain our own consent.