The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that hospitals must obtain written informed consent from patients before undergoing sensitive tests — such as pelvic and prostate exams — especially if the patients are under anesthesia.
A 2020 New York Times investigation found that hospitals, doctors and trainees sometimes performed pelvic exams on women under anesthesia, even when those exams weren’t medically necessary and the patient hadn’t authorized them. Sometimes these tests were done only for the educational benefit of medical trainees.
On Monday, the Health and Human Services secretary, along with top officials from the department’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office for Civil Rights, sent a letter to the nation’s teaching hospitals and medical schools denouncing the practice by doctors and student examiners without express consent.
“The Department is aware of media reports as well as medical and scientific literature highlighting cases where, as part of medical students’ courses of study and training, patients have undergone sensitive and personal tests,” the letter states. “It is critically important that hospitals set clear guidelines to ensure that providers and trainees performing these tests first obtain and document their consent.”
The department issued a series of guidelines clarifying a longstanding requirement that hospitals obtain written informed consent as a condition for participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
“Patients participating in the training of future clinicians should know, have the opportunity to consent, have the same opportunity to participate in this training as they would if they were awake and clothed,” said Ashley Weitz. who underwent an unauthorized pelvic exam while under anesthesia in an emergency department. “We can expect to have better trust in medicine only when both patients and providers can expect a standard of care that prioritizes patient consent.”
