[jason.hugentobler]

During the course there were some example forms provided for consent for patient’s prior to performing dry needling. In working with someone under the age of 18 it would make sense that you were acquire Assent and Consent to treat. However in working with our legal team, they actually advised that we NOT have patient’s and/or parents sign a separate Assent and Consent Form due to the patient’s and families signing consent to treat forms already within the institution. They did agree that there should be a formal discussion of the indications, precautions and contraindications that we have with someone, say before hooking them up to E-stim, and that a “knowing note” or additional information in the form of a handout would be helpful.
Are there any practitioners that DO NOT utilize consent forms as this is captured in other consent to treat forms that you or your institutions already gather? I think this is more of a question for those within larger hospital organizations than in the private practice sector.
Thanks in advance for any input.

[Frank Gargano]

Jason,
I absolutely believe that sitting down with a patient and going over the consent form (like the one in your foundation manual) is important and necessary. DN is an invasive procedure and the release captured when a patient first comes to PT and signs off at the front desk is not “informed consent” about DN because lets be honest, no one reads that. Sitting with the patient going over the risk -benefits and answering all questions allows the patient to make an informed decision. You are correct in different setting the requirements are different but in a patients mind there is no difference. There are few patients that expect a PT will be using a needle on them (compared to a Physician visit) so the short time required to explain it, is in my opinion, necessary and valuable. I am not an attorney so my view comes from a different place.

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