The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that hospitals must obtain written consent from patients before they undergo sensitive tests – such as pelvis and prostate exams – especially if the patients are under anesthesia.
A 2020 New York Times investigation found that hospitals, doctors and medical practices sometimes perform pelvic exams on women under anesthesia, even when those exams are not medically necessary and when they are not consented by the patient. Sometimes these tests are done only for the educational benefit of medical trainees.
On Monday, the secretary of Health and Human Services, along with senior officials from the department’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Office for Civil Rights, sent a letter instructing hospitals and medical schools in the country which denounces the practice of doctors and students conducting the test without express consent.
“The Department is aware of media reports as well as medical and scientific literature showing instances where, as part of medical students’ courses of study and training, patients have been subjected to sensitive and intimate review,” the letter said. “It is critical that hospitals set clear guidelines to ensure that providers and practitioners performing these tests first obtain and document informed consent.”
The department issued a set of guidelines clarifying a longstanding requirement that hospitals must obtain written informed consent as a condition for participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
“Patients participating in the education of future clinicians must be informed, must have the opportunity to consent, must be given the same opportunity to participate in that education that they would be given if they were awake and fully clothed,” said of Ashley Weitz, who underwent an unauthorized pelvic exam while she was under sedation in an emergency room. “We can only hope to have better confidence in medicine when both patients and providers can expect a standard of care that prioritizes patient consent.”
