Based in Michigan, Cullen McKinney is an aggressive, successful trial attorney and founding partner with Tanoury, Nauts, McKinney and Garbarino (TNMG), PLLC. His practice focuses on multiple areas involving civil defense litigation, and he frequently defends medical professionals and hospitals against medical mal-practice claims.
Another issue common to health law is informed consent and its use in the medical field. Informed consent, at its most basic level, is simply giving the patient appropriate information about their treatment and allowing them to make a choice on whether to accept or reject care. In this scenario, it must be noted that a patient should be considered competent before being allowed to make a choice about his or her care. Informed consent comes from the rights of the patient, both legally and ethically, to decide on what happens to his or her body as well as the ethical responsibility of the physician to include a patient in his or her healthcare decisions.
In informed consent, the discussion should include the following basic elements: the nature of the procedure or the decision to be made, any reasonable alternatives that might be pursued, any risks or benefits that are relevant to offered alternatives, an assessment of whether or not the patient understands, and the patient’s acceptance of or rejecting of the procedure or decision. It is easy for coercive situations to occur in a medical setting as patients can feel confused or even powerless about their choices. So, it is important that a medical professional ensures patients understand what they are agreeing to. This concept of understanding is fundamental to informed consent.
