SP 5.06 Digital Consent Transformation and its Effect on Documentation Quality and Clinical Process: The Largest Multi-Specialty NHS Cohort Study
Alexander W Coombs, Mohammad Iqbal Hussain, Leon D’Cruz, Amy Huseyin, Simon Toh, Edward St JohnAbstract
Aims
The use of digital consent has been increasing in preference to paper-based consent. Previous studies evaluating digital consent have been small, representing only a few surgical specialties. We aimed to perform the largest study to date evaluating the transformation from paper-based to digital consent forms at an NHS teaching hospital across multiple specialties.
Methods
An SBRI project (SBRIH19P3055) evaluating consent forms from all specialities was conducted across two phases over a 14-month period. Phase 1 (02/2022-06/2022) assessed the current state of using paper-based consent forms, and Phase 2 (08/2022-08/2023) assessed digital consent forms (Concentric). Forms were assessed for errors, unexplained abbreviations, and whether the consent form or additional information was provided.
Results
A total of 2866 consent forms were analysed across 16 specialities (Paper-based: 403, Digital: 2463). In the paper-based cohort 95.8% (n=386) of forms had at least one error, compared 0.1% (n=2) in the digital cohort. Unexplained abbreviations accounted in 44.9% (n=163) of paper-based consent forms, in contrast to 2.6% (n=65) in digital. Digital consent increased the practice of providing a copy of the consent form to the patient by 62.2% (Paper: 20.8%, Digital: 83.4%), with additional information provided such as a leaflet increasing by 35.2% (Paper: 18.1%, Digital: 53.3%).
Conclusion
Digital consent significantly decreased form errors and improved information shared to the patient about their surgery, with those consent forms shared having more patient educational content than paper-based handwritten forms. This should benefit patients by enhancing informed consent and surgeons by providing better medicolegal documentation.