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Recent
Journal Articles
Consent Forms That Patients Can Understand
The Wall Street Journal (February 6, 2008)
Article explores the limitations of most consent forms and the
pressure being applied to hospitals by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services and by the Joint Commission to make the informed
consent process more patient-friendly and forms easier to understand.
The Department of Veterans Affairs describes their experience with
the iMedConsent™ application and the subsequent reduction in lost or
misplaced forms with use of Dialog Medical's automated system.
Examples of the iMedConsent™ application in use are included.
Consent Redux
Health Management Technology (February 2008)
Case study examines the process by which an Illinois medical
center addressed challenges with CMS compliance
by automating the informed consent process.
Mary Jean Derreberry, BSN, RNC, Director of the Surgical,
Ambulatory Care and Pain Clinic, describes CGH Medical Center's
search for a software solution and why they ultimately settled on
the iMedConsent™ application. Benefits realized included: a more
compliant process, enhanced physician-staff and physician-patient
communication, and reduced risk of errors.
Tech Talk - Augment Your Consents
MGMA Connexion (January 2008)
Article reviews the limitations associated with the traditional
informed consent process and the benefits of automating that process
for medical group practices. Neil Baum, MD, a New
Orleans-based urologist reviews how an automated informed consent
and patient education tool allowed him to continue to supply his
patients with vital materials when he was forced to temporarily
relocate his practice in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Addressing CMS Compliance and Patient Safety with Automated Informed
Consent
Most Wired (December 2007)
Essay examines the new CMS guidelines
on informed consent and the unique compliance issues those
interpretive guidelines present for hospitals. Authored by Fay Rozovsky, JD, MPH and Timothy Kelly,
this piece reviews strategies for automating the informed consent
process that resolve compliance concerns while simultaneously adding protections
that enhance patient safety.
The VA Hospital Strives to Do No Harm
Risk Management Magazine (October 2007)
Article describes a novel approach to improving patient safety by
leveraging Dialog Medical's iMedConsent™ application.
Mary Lou Faustina,
RN, MS, and Mary Montufar, RN, MS, clinical application coordinators
for the Palo Alto VA Medical Center, detail a strategy for employing
information obtained during the informed consent process to confirm
correct patient, correct procedure, and correct site during the
preoperative "Time Out."
Informed
Consent - Weathering the Perfect Storm
Health Management Technology (August 2007)
Article looks at the influential factors that are elevating the
importance of informed consent for healthcare institutions. Those
factors include the recently revised CMS guidelines, accreditation
considerations, and risk management concerns. Coauthored by Margaret
Reiter, a CNO from the St. Luke's Episcopal Health System, the article
includes a case study of St. Luke's experience with implementing
an automated informed consent solution, the iMedConsent™ application.
Vendor
Notebook - Dialog Medical
Healthcare IT News (July 2007)
Coverage of Dialog Medical's announced new contract for its iMedConsent™
application with Resurrection Health Care, an eight-hospital system
serving the Chicago area.
The
411 on Informed Consent
For the Record (July
2007)
Article details the new CMS Guidelines for Informed Consent - revised
in April 2007. The results of a study that documented increased
patient satisfaction with use of the iMedConsent™
application is presented. An itemized list of reasons for hospitals
to automate their informed consent processes is presented.
Dialog
Medical Unveils New Spanish Language Module
Advance for Health Information Executives
(April 2007)
News brief describing Dialog Medical's addition of a Spanish language
module to its iMedConsent™
application. Through this module, healthcare organizations have
access to informed consent and patient education documents that
are customized for Spanish-speaking Americans.
Automated
Informed Consent Improves Patient Care and Safety
Group Practice Journal (March 2007)
Article examines how an automated informed consent process can benefit
group practices in the areas of patient safety and quality of care.
James E. Gottesman, MD, a practicing urologist in Seattle and a
clinical professor of urology at the University of Washington Medical
School, provides of thoughtful case study describing the benefits
a comprehensive informed consent tool, such as the iMedConsent™
application, can have on patient satisfaction.
(Subscription required - reprints may be ordered from the journal
via the link provided or by contacting Dialog Medical.)
Informed
consent: Use it to improve care, reduce risk
Urology Times (February 2007)
Article notes that the average urologist will be named as a
defendant
in a medical malpractice suit at least twice in his or her career.
The authors, Neil H. Baum, MD, and Robert A. Dowling, MD, examine
how implementation of an automated informed consent application
can reduce urologists' risk from these lawsuits.
Automated
Informed Consent Helps Healthcare Organizations Respond to New JCAHO
Survey Tactics
Journal of Health Care Compliance (January/February
2007)
Article outlines the new Joint Commission survey processes of unannounced
audits and tracer surveys. The authors, Michele Krajewski, Joan
DiOrio, Irynne Sixon and Rose Dooley Lester, explain how an automated
informed consent application can benefit healthcare organizations
during those Joint Commission surveys. The experiences of several
hospitals, which implemented the iMedConsent™
application and then completed their Joint Commission audits, are
presented.
(Subscription required - reprints may be ordered from the journal
via the link provided or by contacting Dialog Medical.)
New
CMS Guidelines Provide Incentive to Adopt Automated Informed Consent
Journal for Healthcare Quality (January/February
2007)
Article explores
how technology can assist healthcare facilities in meeting the new
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guidelines for informed
consent. Issues addressed include shortcomings in the traditional
informed consent process, ways that technology can facilitate meeting
these new guidelines, other compliance benefits - such as achieving
compliance with Joint Commission requirements - and criteria that
healthcare organizations should consider when choosing an automated
informed consent solution.
(Subscription required - reprints may be ordered from the journal
via the link provided or by contacting Dialog Medical.)
Automate
Informed Consent for Patient Involvement
Healthcare IT News (December 2006)
Article details the new 2007 JCAHO National Patient Safety Goals.
One of those new patient safety goals is - encourage patients' active
involvement in their own care. The author, James Gottesman, M.D.,
notes that the ideal opportunity for increasing patient involvement
in their care plan occurs during the informed consent process. That
process is dramatically enhanced by use of an automated informed
consent tool, such as the iMedConsent™ application, to prepare
detailed, procedure-specific consent forms and patient education
materials for patients and their families.
Informed
Consent: More Than a Form
The Journal of Medical Practice Management
(November 2006)
Article describes informed consent as a process - not a piece of
paper. Gives examples of how use of an automated informed consent
application can enhance that process while generating detailed,
procedure-specific informed consent forms that aid in patient understanding.
The CMS requirements for a properly executed informed consent form
are also detailed.
(Subscription required - reprints may be ordered from the journal
via the link provided or by contacting Dialog Medical.)
Physicians
Aggressively Pursuing I.T.
Health Data Management (September 2006)
Article describes several instances where physicians have been the
catalyst for major information technology initiatives within healthcare
institutions. John Frenzel, M.D. describes a gap analysis conducted
at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center that found the consent process to
be a "stress point" for that institution. The decision
of M. D. Anderson to integrate the iMedConsent™ application
with its EMR to allow providers to easily confirm that patients
have given their consent, and thus eliminate the challenges associated
with locating consent forms prior to a case, is described.
Document
Informed Consent Automatically
Outpatient Surgery (September 2006)
This Business Advisor discussion recommends an investment in software
as a means to ensure that patient consent is truly informed and
as a means to reduce malpractice risk. The results of a patient
satisfaction study, involving the iMedConsent™ application,
and conducted at Emory University Medical Center, are cited.
Informed
Versus Uninformed Consent for Prostate Surgery: The Value of Electronic
Consents
The Journal of Urology (August 2006)
Paper by Muta Issa, MD, MBA, Aaron Fink, MD, FACS, and other researchers
from the Atlanta VA Medical Center and from Emory University describes
a review of 222 urology procedures that were conducted over a 6-year
period. The shortcomings of conventional, paper-based consent forms
were compared with a new, standardized electronic consent system
(iMedConsent™ application, Dialog Medical). Among the findings:
7.7% of the time the conventional consent forms were missing from
the patient's chart; 49% of the handwritten, conventional consent
forms failed to list a single alternative treatment or procedure;
96.1% of the patients, who had been exposed to both systems, reported
that they preferred the electronic process over the paper-based
process. Includes an accompanying editorial by Philip Hanno, MD,
MPH of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania who remarks
"The days of the traditional, nonstandardized consent form
should be over…"
(Subscription required - reprints may be ordered from the journal
via the link provided or by contacting Dialog Medical.)
Medicare: When the Auditor Comes Calling
Physicians Practice (June 2006)
Article discusses how to respond to, and avoid, CMS audits. The
importance of informed consent documentation to CMS auditors is
discussed and the utility of an automated informed consent application
from Dialog Medical is noted.
Informed
Consent: Comprehension is the Key
Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (May/June
2006)
Article describes the critical patient safety aspect of fully comprehended
informed consent and the guidance provided by the National Quality
Forum on strategies for achieving this goal. The utility of employing
automated tools for ensuring patient understanding of contemplated
procedures is discussed and screen shots of the Comprehension Check™
feature within the iMedConsent™ application are referenced.
Hospital Automates Consent Process
Health Data Management (May 2006)
Brief announcement of the decision by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
to implement, enterprise-wide, the informed consent management software
of Dialog Medical.
Deal!
St. Luke's Episcopal Health System
HealthLeaders (May 2006)
Brief summary of St. Luke's Episcopal Health System need to streamline
a cumbersome paper-based process of more than 80 forms and their
decision to purchase the iMedConsent™ application from Dialog
Medical.
A
New Look at Informed Consent
Healthcare Financial Management (February
2006)
A comprehensive overview of how the current informed consent process
works, what the ideal process should look like and how a standardized
informed consent process can help prevent "big picture"
business problems such as claims denials and malpractice law suits.
A case study outlining the benefits of the iMedConsent™ application
in the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center is included.
(Subscription required - reprints may be ordered from the journal
via the link provided or by contacting Dialog Medical.)
Module Helps Verify Comprehension
Health Data Management (February 2006)
Announcement citing the ability of the iMedConsent™ software
to document patient comprehension. The new Comprehension Check™
module incorporates recommendations from the National Quality Forum
for confirming that patients understand their care. This key enhancement
enables hospital staff to document a patient's comprehension of
his or her diagnosis, proposed treatment, and anatomical location
for a procedure, risks, and alternatives. The software then sends
this information to a hospital's electronic medical records system
to be stored within the patient's chart.
Automating
Informed Consent
Outpatient Surgery (December 2005)
Report
details how computer programs allow surgeons to scrap traditional
fill-in-the-blank consent forms in favor of novel tools that tailor
content for each patient and procedure. The iMedConsent™ PE
application – the practice edition of the iMedConsent™
Enterprise software employed by over 160 hospitals – is discussed.
Informed
Consent Enters a New Age
Patient
Safety and Quality Healthcare (November/December 2005)
Authored by Mike Burke, Dialog
Medical's President and Co-Founder, this article examines the limitations
of traditional informed consent documents and the benefits afforded
by automating that process. This piece examines the potential impact
of a computerized informed consent tool on patient safety, reimbursement,
risk management and regulatory compliance.
MD
Anderson Evaluates the iMedConsent™ Application
Health Data Management (November 2005)
Cover story details the efforts
of various institutions to integrate PACS with Electronic Records
and mentions that some pieces of an EMR, such as a comprehensive
informed consent solution, are best considered from firms specializing
in that technology.
Advance
Directives Module
Health
Management Technologies (October 2005)
News brief highlights the iMedConsent™
Advanced Directives Module which facilitates the collection and
documentation of patients' healthcare decisions.
Informed
Consent: How Automation Can Protect Hospitals
Most
Wired Online (September 2005)
Co-authored by
Dialog Medical founder, Dr. Jim Gottesman, and iMedConsent user,
Dr. Robert O’Hara, this online column looks at how the use
of an automated informed consent application can help hospitals
increase compliance, enhance efficiency and reduce malpractice risk.
Rethinking
Informed Consent
Advance for
Health Information Executives (August 2005)
Authored by Mike
Burke, Dialog Medical's President and Co-Founder, this "guest
editorial" looks at the tremendous role a standardized, automated
informed consent process can play in improving patient safety.
Physician
Involvement in I.T. Decisions
Health Data Management (July 2005)
Dr.
Chad Ritenour (Emory University Department of Urology) discusses
his role as an "evaluator" of iMedConsent in this special
report on involving physicians in IT decisions.
VA
Automates Patient Consent Forms
Healthcare
IT News (June 2005)
Feature
article explains how iMedConsent is helping facilities like the
Durham VAMC meet the JCHAO's 2006 patient safety goals.
New
Technology to Aid in Patient-Physician Dialogues
Hospitals
and Health Networks (June 2005)
Article
discusses the VA's technology solution--a program called iMedConsent--provides
physicians with a digital library of informed consent forms in a
step-by-step format.
Consent App Gets OK from VA
Center
Health Data
Management (April 2005)
The Atlanta VA Medical Center’s use of the iMedConsent™
application to improve patient health literacy is highlighted in
this case study.
Consent with a Tech Twist
Physicians Practice (April 2005)
Authored by Dr. James E. Gottesman, Dialog Medical’s Medical Director and Co-Founder, this sidebar explains how technology can help physicians avoid the legal pitfalls of the informed consent process.
VA
Patient Consent Goes Electronic
U.S. Medicine
(February 2005)
Feature article
describes the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Support
for Patient Decisions (ESPD) initiative. The evaluation, selection
and customization of the iMedConsent™ application to support
the ESPD initiative, and standardize the VA’s informed consent
process, are described in detail.
Urologist
finds success with forming a business on paper.
American Medical
News (November 15, 2004)
Business profile explains how and why Dr. James E.
Gottesman co-founded Dialog Medical.
(AMA Membership/Subscription required)
There's safety in being well informed
Health Data Management (August 2004)
Hines VA Medical Center’s use of the iMedConsent™ application is highlighted in this sidebar that accompanies a cover story about identifying and prioritizing patient safety efforts.
Patient Safety: Looking Beyond Medical Errors
Advance for Health Information Executives (July 19, 2004)
Authored by Mike Burke, Dialog Medical’s President and Co-Founder, this sidebar looks at the patient safety issues surrounding the informed consent process and highlights key of the benefits of standardizing the process.
VA consent form process shreds a paper-based approach
Healthcare IT News (July 2004)
Feature article outlines the details of Dialog Medical’s nationwide licensing agreement with the Veterans Healthcare Administration.
Spotlight on Dialog Medical
MD Net Guide (July 2004)
Corporate profile explains how the iMedConsent™ application functions and includes quotes from Deborah Skarda and Aaron Fink, MD from the Atlanta VA Medical Center. |
