Wouter Leclercq

Challenging the knowledge base and skillset for providing surgical consent by orthopedic and plastic surgeons in the Netherlands: An identified area of improvement in patient safety 67 4 Several methods may be used by a surgeon to verify whether information is understood by his patient. Merely asking if a patient has any questions or asking if everything is understood is not sufficient. The repeat back method is far more adequate, but this method is seldom used by either group (9%) (Q11). Stage of consent Although SIC forms are not obligatory in the Netherlands, the PS group used them significantly more often compared to the OS group (OS 21% vs. PS 42%, P=0.001) (Q6). An important element of patient safety programs is a preoperative check on whether SIC was followed 9,12 (Kuo CC and Robb WJ 3rd, 2012, Leclercq WK et al., 2013) (9;12) (9;12) (9;12) (10;13). However, just one of 3 respondents (36%) claimed to check for an adequate preoperative consent (Q17). SIC support tools Various tools may aid surgeons and residents in facilitating the SIC process. Leaflets containing patient information were frequently used by all parties (98%). However, other tools such as movies, software programs/websites and nursing staff for informing patients were more often used by the OS group (Q9). Significantly more surgeons than residents used modern tools such as websites to inform patients (OS surgeons 55% vs. OS residents 27%, P<0.0001; PS surgeons 39% vs. PS residents 16%, P=0.04, not in table). Seventy-nine percent of the respondents claimed to have an interest in using interactive computer programs for SIC (Q22). Medicolegal consequence of present day SIC practice Most respondents stated that they believed SIC was especially important for medical staff (89%). In contrast, only 57% thought that patients were aware of the importance of SIC (Q19). A total of 15% (OS 12%, PS 16%, ns) of the surgeons and 7% (OS 4%, PS 9%, ns) of the residents had received one or more SIC-related official complaint in the preceding five years (Q21, not in table).