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Against The Informed Consent Argument For Surgeon Report Cards, David A. Neil

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The publication of outcomes information, or ‘report cards’, for individual surgeons can be argued for on three distinct grounds. One kind of argument appeals to healthcare quality, and focuses on the value of individual performance auditing for patient safety and for an evidence-based approach to best practice. A second kind of argument constructs the patient as a healthcare ‘consumer’ and appeals to a notion of consumer rights, such that patients have a right to comparative information about the healthcare products and services that they consume. Some proponents of this kind of argument believe that enabling patients to bemore informed consumers …