When a patient brings an informed consent claim, you may look first at the signed consent form in the medical record. A signature could support your account that the patient agreed to treatment. Still, the claim often turns on a broader issue: What information did you give the patient before the procedure?
In New York, a signature alone does not settle that issue. Courts look beyond a generic consent form when they decide whether a patient received enough information to make an informed choice. A more detailed form might carry greater weight if it identifies specific risks, benefits and treatment alternatives.
What New York requires you to disclose
New York law requires physicians to disclose certain information before specified treatments and diagnostic procedures. You must explain the reasonably foreseeable risks and benefits as well as available alternatives that a reasonable medical practitioner would discuss under similar circumstances.
The information must allow the patient to make a knowledgeable decision. A patient who brings an informed consent claim generally must also show that a reasonably prudent person would have declined the treatment after receiving the required information. The patient must further link the lack of informed consent to the injury.
Records may document the consent discussion
The rest of the medical record could show what you discussed before treatment. Your notes might identify risks you explained, alternatives you offered or other details from the consent discussion. Records from earlier visits may also establish when you provided that information.
Courts may also compare your testimony with the patient’s account. When those accounts conflict, written notes and detailed consent records might support your description of the discussion more directly than a signature by itself.
Review what the record actually shows
An informed consent claim may place an earlier patient discussion under close review long after treatment ends. Consider reading the signed form alongside your notes and other records from the same period.
That comparison might show which disclosures the records document and where the patient gives a different account. Identifying those points could help you understand the disputed facts and approach the legal proceedings with a more complete record.
